Sole Survivor
by UnKnownSalvation
Summary: Steven had always been a happy and optimistic child but when the only thing he had to a mentor, a sister, and a mother all disappear from his life, how will Steven handle being the last Gem to protect the Earth? Maybe with Connie, Lion and Greg helping, he just might find a way.
1. And Then There Was One

_**Sole Survivor**_

_**Ch. 1: And Then There Was One**_

A few weeks had passed since the ocean was returned to Beach City, after Steven and the Gems' climactic fight against Lapis Lazuli. Slowly, but surely, normality eventually returned to the city and business resumed as usual with the summer tourism coming in full force. The city was alive with buzz, as the beach was littered with people from all walks of life. Steven, wearing nothing more than his sandals and swimming trunks was no exception, as he chilled on the beach building a huge sand castle with Amethyst. Pearl and Garnet, however, were standing just a few meters away from them, talking with one another with something very important.

"It's been a few weeks and there still hasn't been any activity," Pearl explained to Garnet.

"I know but I can feel as if that's about to change soon," Garnet mentioned.

"Which is why we need to keep our guards up until then," Pearl reasoned.

"Guys, how come you're not having fun with us?" both Garnet and Pearl turned and saw Steven right next to them.

"Yeah, you two! This is no time to be beach bummers!" Amethyst called out, still building the sand castle. Pearl rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Steven.

"Steven, I know that you want us to relax, but there are a few gem creatures out there that can attack at any time," Pearl explained.

"But there hasn't been one for weeks," Steven countered.

"We still have to be ready," said Garnet.

"You guys are paranoid!" Amethyst said as she placed a purple flag on top of their ten foot tall castle. "If there was going to be an attack, it would have let us know by now!"

Suddenly, Steven, the Gems and everyone on the beach felt a large tremor and screech that shook every inch of the city and caused Steven and Amethyst's castle to crumble to dust.

"NO!" Steven shouted to the heavens in despair. "We didn't even get to take a picture of it!"

"Oh it's on now!" Amethyst agreed, mad that all that hard work was destroyed. "No monster destroys my castle and gets away with it!"

"But we don't know where it even is!" Pearl pointed out in an attempt to calm Amethyst down. Just then, a giant hole appeared in the sand, leading down into a dark cavern.

"I think it's that way," Garnet stated the obvious, as the trio turned to her. "Just a hunch."

"Then, what are waiting for? Let's whoop its sorry butt!" Amethyst said fired up, as she summoned her whip out of the gem in her chest, let out a war cry and jumped cavern entrance.

"Does she know where she's going?" Pearl asked.

"Considering her, no," Garnet answered, motioning for Pearl and Steven to follow, as they raced after Amethyst.

* * *

After having Steven put a shirt on, Garnet, Pearl, and him went in after Amethyst. Fortunately, they were able to catch up to Amethyst before she got lost and ended up going around in circles. Garnet then caused both gems from her hands to glow, illuminating the caverns, before she leads her friends to the source of the large tremor.

"Remember, do not split up," Garnet informed her friends.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Amethyst simply sassed.

"Says the one who leaped into the hole first," Pearl countered.

"At least I was ready to battle," Amethyst argued.

"Letting out a war cry and charging head first isn't what I describe as preparation," Pearl argued back.

"Guys; please, don't fight," Steven pleaded with a quivering lip, as he could feel another fight coming.

"Steven's right, we need to focus right now," Garnet agreed.

Both Pearl and Amethyst sighed and gave each other an half-hearted apology, before the group entered an area in the shape of huge circular dome that was the size of a stadium, with it having to be at least 200 feet from the ceiling to the floor. Stalagmites and stalactites covered the room and made an enormous amount of places to hide.

"If the creature could make a tremor like that, it must be too big to hide in here," Pearl deduced.

"So where is it?" Amethyst asked. "Cause I don't see no sand castle wrecking monster anywhere."

"It's here. I can feel it," Garnet replied.

Just then, the group felt another large tremor coming there, being much erratic compared to the previous one. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl summoned their weapons, ready to face whatever it was coming their way. But then, the tremor stopped suddenly as it started and coming out of the stalagmites, was…

"Is that...a seagull?" Amethyst asked out loud. Indeed it was, as a small seagull started to hop out from behind the stalagmites. It's wing was bent in a way that it wasn't supposed to, showing it was injured.

"What is something like that doing down here?" Pearl asked, just as confused as Amethyst.

"Maybe it injured its wing and must have made its way here," Steven concluded, as he began to get close to the injured bird. "Don't worry, little guy, I won't hurt you." Suddenly, Garnet noticed a very thin string attached to the seagull's leg.

"Steven, wait!" Garnet shouted.

But it was too late, as the "seagull" rose up, followed by another large tremor, as something was slowly rising up from under the floor. Upon getting a good look at it, it turned out to be another gem creature; a giant crab with a dark green armored body, covered in sharp, light green crystals, the "seagull" being nothing more than a lure on a string at the top of its head, with four claws at each side and eight legs sticking out; its piercing black eyes staring the Gems down.

"Aah!" Steven shouted with horror, too shock to move his body, as the lure attempted to snatch him. Fortunately, Amethyst quickly grabbed Steven with her whip and pulled him back to them.

"Thanks, Amethyst," Steven expressed his gratitude.

"Don't mention it, Stevie," Amethyst simply said, before she rushed towards the Crystal Crab.

"We'll take it from here, Steven. Just get behind something sturdy," Garnet ordered, to which Steven replied with a salute before running off into the stalagmite maze.

"This is for destroying our sand castle!" Amethyst shouted, whipping the Crystal Crab like mad, with Garnet pummeling it and Pearl jabbing its underbelly, getting slight pierces.

The Crystal Crab, however, reacted with an annoyed roar and quickly shook off their attacks like they were nothing, stomping the ground as hard as it can, with the shock waves knocking all three Gems down. As they all got up, the Crystal Crab immediately struck back with surprising speed, using its four claws at them, prompting Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl to deflect each and every one them as best they could. But the crab's bizarre agility was starting to wear them down and Garnet, in particular, was unable to deflect it any longer, as one of the claw knocked her out to the ground. Garnet got up as quickly as she could, but the crab got to her first, quickly piercing Garnet with one of its sharp legs. She could feel the sharp leg piercing through her and with one last gasp, Garnet disappeared into smoke, leaving only her gems to take her place.

"GARNET!" both Amethyst and Pearl shouted in horror, realizing the strongest of them had just been beat, before the former quickly leaped at the Crystal Crab with righteous anger.

"This is for Garnet!" Amethyst declared out loud, as she summoned a second whip, as she proceeded to whip the Crystal Crab in a mad frenzy, along with Pearl desperately trying to pierce its tough skin after summoning a second spear, with much more success. It's armor was resistant to slashes and blunt force but was weak to stabbing weapons which Pearl began to abuse. Steven sprung into action but tripped over a fallen stalagmite and just as he went to get up, found that his shorts were now caught because of a fallen stalactite that just barely missed hitting the boy himself.

Again, the Crystal Crab reacted with annoyance, shaking off their attacks once again, this time, grabbing Amethyst whip, with its owner still clinging on it, as it brutally whipped her back and forth without mercy. Eventually, it whipped to the ground very hard, leaving an injured and daze Amethyst, just as Steven peaked out from the stalagmites to see what was going on.

"Amethyst, are you...alright?" Steven asked with his voice full of sadness and worrisome. The boy could only watch helplessly with tearful eyes as his friends were getting pummeled.

"It's okay, Steven. No pain...no gain, right?" Amethyst joked.

Sadly, it was the last thing she would say, as the Crystal Crab's claw quickly slammed her into the wall, shaking most of the cave and causing Amethyst to disappear in smoke, leaving behind her gemstone.

"AMETHYST!" Steven and Pearl shouted with shock.

Caught right off guard by this, Pearl failed to notice one of the crab's claw grabbing her, picking her up, as it began to crush her body. Pearl struggled to free herself, but it was no use; the Crystal Crab's claw was too powerful and it's grip was starting to tighten, squeezing her as hard as it can.

'_Too strong...I can't...break free,' _Pearl thought, her body too weak to do anything, as she turn her gaze at Steven. "Steven...you have...to run," she barely blurted out, just as the crab succeeded in crushing her, causing Pearl to disappear and leaving her gemstone on the ground.

"PEARL!" Steven shouted, horrified that the Gems have been utterly defeated. His tears finally broke through and started pouring down his face.

But there was no time for Steven to mourn for his loss; the Crystal Crab finally noticed Steven hiding behind the stalagmites and with one tremendous roar, began to stalk the now frightened boy. Steven finally managed to rip his shorts out from under the stalactite and took off running as fast as he could into the maze of stalagmites, but they were no match for the crab, easily destroyed by its towering body, before he ran straight into a dead end, with no other way out, before he slowly turned to face the Crystal Crab. All he could do was put up a bubble and pray something saves him.

'_Oh man! This looks like the end for Steven Universe!' _Steven thought, as he continued to stare at the monstrous crab, too frightened to move his body.

The Crystal Crab, in turn, continued to stare down at Steven, like it was nothing more than an ant and slowly approached the frighten boy. Unbeknownst to it, a giant stalactite was hovering above, its foundation starting to crack due to the Crystal Crab's wanton destruction. The foundation suddenly caved in, causing the giant stalactite to impale the Crystal Crab, preventing it from hurting Steven and causing the crab to explode into dust, leaving only a gem in its destruction.

"That...was...a close...one," a emotionally wrecked Steven said with a sigh, before he realized what he had to do. "I need to get the gems out of here before something else happens!" Steven said as he wiped the tears from his eyes and quickly bubbled the crab's gem and sent it back to the burning room before picking up the four gems of his friends and quickly heading for the entrance. Though a new problem reared its ugly head.

"I'M STUCK IN A HOLE!" Steven shouted when he finally reached the entrance and realized he would have to climb out all by himself.

* * *

After a grueling six hours of climbing and nightfall overtaking Beach City, an exhausted Steven finally made his way back to the beach house, before falling to his back, still carrying the gems of his friends. Steven slowly grabbed a pillow from the couch and placed the gems on it to see if there were any cracks that he would have to heal. After inspecting them for a few minutes under lamplight, he sighed with relief, having found no cracks on any of the gems.

"Thank goodness for that!" Steven exclaimed with joy, before he looked at the gemstones sadly. "I wish you guys were here right now. I don't know what to do without any of you," Steven knew he wouldn't be receiving any answers out of them until they were fully regenerated, but just the fact he would have to wait without any of them didn't make it any better. "Just please don't take two weeks this time…"

As much as he wanted them to heal right away, Steven knew he couldn't rush them. All he could do about it was be patient and wait. Steven looked at the clock to see it was far past ten at night and that he should get some sleep. The young gem grabbed the pillow with the gems and took it to bed with him, intent on keeping them safe with him.

"Good night, you guys. See you in the morning," Steven bid them a good night, as he fall asleep. Little did he realize that something astonishing was about to happen, as all four gems started to glow dimly in the moonlight.

* * *

Beep… Beep… Beep...

Steven woke to the sound of his alarm clock going off and slowly, but sleepily, he started to stir up, eventually managing to crawl off his bed and attempting several times to find the off button without opening his eyes. Finally, he managed to hit the button, deactivating at last.

"Ugh… I'm so sore…" Steven whined as he felt all of his muscles ache from last night's six hour climb out of the hole in the beach. "But at least you guys are safe and…" Steven trailed when he turned and saw that none of the gems were on the pillow. Steven searched his entire room, turning it inside out but finding nothing. Of course to Steven this could only mean one thing.

"Wow you guys must of healed fast!" Steven, ever the optimist, quickly ran downstairs to find the gems. But when he made it down, he saw no trace that anyone had been in the house at all. No Garnet, no Amethyst, no Pearl, no anybody. "GUYS?! HELLO!?" Steven shouted as loud as he could, making sure that someone would hear him. But after a few seconds, it was clear that he was still all by himself.

"They must be out on a mission or something. Though they would have left a note or something…" Steven trailed off when he took a look at his palms and saw something he wasn't expecting at all: Garnet's gems now stuck in his hands.

"H-How did they get in there?!" Steven shouted, as he tried and failed to get them out of his hands; the gems refusing to budge. Steven began to panic as he thought of something. He quickly ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Upon closer look, he saw that not only was Pearl's gem on his forehead, but he saw Amethyst's gem was now on his chest. "This has to be a dream…Yeah, that's right. It has to be a very bad dream! Oh, I know!" Steven ran towards the wall before smashing the back of his head against the wall. While he succeeded in giving himself a huge headache, looking into the mirror showed that he accomplished nothing else besides ruling out the dream explanation. All of this was enough to freak Steven out of rational thought, as he ran out of the bathroom in utter fear.

"No… No. No! NO! NOOOOO! **NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**" Steven shouted as he ran in circles in a confusion-induced frenzy. "AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH! AHH!"

**To be continued…**

* * *

**A/N Before anyone asked, this is just a pilot chapter. I'm still working on Return From Limbo first as I'm nearing the end of that. This is simply to test the waters for this story so that I can determine what I want to do next. If you like this idea, let me know and I'll begin work on it after Return From Limbo. **

**Till Next Time: Sal out!**


	2. You Get the Couch

_**Ch. 2: You Get the Couch**_

It was high noon in Beach City and Connie was quite beat from yet another day practicing at the tennis court; her coach pushing her to do better than ever put a lot of strain on her body, but she was at least finished for the day. As she weakly got into her house, the first thing she did was make herself something to eat, take a quick shower and change into something more comfortable: a simple blue t-shirt and jeans. Once she managed to regain some energy after a few minutes of rest, one thing popped right into her mind.

'_Maybe I should drop by Steven's place this afternoon and see how he's doing. I'm sure he and the Gems don't mind.'_

Having made up her mind, Connie picked herself up and was about to head to the front door when unexpectedly, she heard the phone started to ring. Puzzled by this, Connie went to the kitchen and picked up the receiver to see who was calling.

"Hello?"

"AHH! AHH! AHH!" Connie was probably one of the few people who could figure out who it was by just them screaming. On the other end was Steven, screaming bloody murder into the phone and startling Connie. His screaming nearly caused her to go almost deaf.

"Steven, calm down!" Connie worryingly shouted back, fighting Steven over who could out-shout the other. Fortunately for her, he complied to her demand, ceasing his screaming shortly afterwards. "Now, what is the problem?"

Connie could hear Steven on the other end of the line taking a deep breath, as she waited patiently for him to give her a simple explanation. Instead…

"IHAVEGEMSONMYBODYTHEIRSTUCKONMELIKEGLUEANDIDONTKNOWHOWTOREMOVETHEMANDI…" Steven spoke in a very frantic, incoherent gibberish that vaguely resembled a sentence, but it went by so fast that Connie couldn't even understand what he was trying to tell her, further confusing her.

"Steven, do you want me to come over?" Connie asked, concerned that Steven was having problems forming coherent sentence structure; almost as if she was questioning if he was still sane.

"YESNOMAYBEI-" Steven was so conflicted on what he was trying to say, that it alone was incomprehensible, prompting Connie to make the decision for Steven.

"Just stay put, Steven; I'll be right there," Connie instructed him, before she hung up the phone and quickly made her way to the beach house. Whatever is happening to Steven, she needed to find out what's going on and see if she can help him.

* * *

Despite being exhausted from her sprint to the beach house, Connie was able to make it there in great time. She just hoped that Steven was still okay and had at least stayed put, just as she had told him; she was concerned for Steven's well being with his erratic actions over the phone; he was definitely not his happy self. She cautiously approached the front door and knocked on it.

"Steven, are you-" Before Connie could finish, the door flew open, nearly hitting her, with Steven quickly grabbing her by the arm and pulling her inside, before quickly closing the door, causing her to shriek in surprise by the unexpected action. After finally getting her bearings together, Connie saw that Steven was now wearing a red headband and two black leather gloves.

"Steven, what's going on? Why were you shouting when you called me? And what's with the headband and gloves?

"...Promise me that you won't freak out on me," Steven eventually told Connie.

"Don't worry, Steven. Just be honest with me," Connie assured him with a warm smile.

Her smile was enough to calm Steven down a little, but not much. Tears could be seen in his eyes, as he prepared to explain.

"Me and the Gems were playing in the sand yesterday when another gem monster started shaking the ground," Steven began, a tone of sadness clearly coming from his voice.

"That would explain the tremors," Connie commented. "What did you and the Gems find down there?"

"...A giant gem crab," Steven answered, his voice still a bit shaky. Connie decided to move the conversation to the couch so Steven could sit.

"So where are the Gems? I haven't seen them since I got here," she noted.

"Th…They're not here anymore…" Steven quietly replied, as tears started running down his face; Connie gasped as she realized what that meant.

"You mean they're d-" She had to stop herself from saying it.

"They're not really gone, Connie," Steven corrected her, as he tried to fight back any more tears. "They can make new bodies when they lose their current ones."

Connie was relieved to hear that from Steven, but a new question came to mind.

"Where are the Gems then?"

"They're still around, but…" Steven paused suddenly, much to Connie's curiosity.

"But what, Steven?" she questioned Steven, when he suddenly stopped in the middle of his explanation.

Steven still hesitated, unsure how to explain what happened to their gems; it would have been awkward trying to tell Connie where they are now. So with one deep breath, he removed one of his gloves, as well as his headband and pulled down his shirt, revealing the gems that are now embedded on his body. Upon seeing them up close, Connie gasped in surprise by the shocking sight.

"Wow, Steven, you weren't kidding," a stunned Connie admitted, as Steven put his headband back on, along with his glove, as well as putting his shirt back into its position. Then a thought occurred to her. "How did this happened?"

"I don't know!" Steven exclaimed, as he rocketed up from the couch to panic once again. "I tried to remove them, but they're stuck to me like glue! What if I'm like this for the rest of my life?! What if Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl won't ever come back?! What if-"

Without warning, Steven felt something hard smacking in his face, ceasing Steven's panic and leaving a red mark in the process, snapping him back to reality, as he turned to Connie with a less despair in his face.

"Thank you; I needed that," Steven said in a very calm tone.

"It was nothing, Steven," Connie simply said. "Have you told anyone else about this?"

"I didn't," Steven answered "You're the only one I talked to so far. I haven't left the house since this morning. I'm worried how everyone in Beach City will react. I don't want everyone asking me about this…it was hard enough just talking to you about it," Steven said with his head down, as Connie walked up and put her hand on his back.

"I understand, Steven," Connie said, bringing a small smile to her friend's face. He looked like a mess from all the tears he's cried. An idea came to Connie about how Steven could get around without being seen. "Then why not use Lion? He can teleport you anywhere in a second," she reminded Steven.

"...Dang it!" Steven face palmed in annoyance, realizing the answer was right in front of him this whole time. He took a deep breath, turned to the front door and let out a big shout. "Lion!"

Almost as if he was waiting right outside, Lion, the pink oversized pet lion, burst through the window no more than two seconds later, shattering the window completely, as he calmly approached Steven and Connie in his usual stoic manner.

"Lion, who's going to pay for that?" Steven wondered as he pointed to the window, though he was only met by Lion just staring blankly back at him.

As much as he wanted an answer, Steven quickly shook his head, wanting to focus on the important task at hand. But first, he had something to show Lion.

"Lion, promise that you won't freak out," Steven then removed his glove and headband first, before lowering his shirt, revealing Lion his new gems. Lion, however, just licked Steven's face, prompting Steven to sigh with relief.

'I guess he's taking this well,' Steven thoughtfully concluded.

"Steven, we should probably tell your dad," Connie stated, prompting Steven to cringe a little. He didn't even what to guess how his dad would take it. "You know he'll want to know about this," Steven sighed, as he knew he couldn't argue against it.

"You're right," Steven replied, before he and Connie hopped onto Lion. "To It's-A-Wash, Lion!"

Lion nodded his head, understanding Steven's command, as he ran up to the window, "No, Lion, don't-!" But it was too late, as Lion quickly smashed it upon leaving the beach house, before creating a portal, entering it and disappearing with his passengers shortly afterwards.

* * *

Today was a great day for Greg. Ever since summer had arrived to Beach City a few weeks back, there were lots of cars coming to It's-A-Wash from every state, which meant that he could make at least enough money to keep his business afloat, even if it was going to last for only three months. But until then, he just needed to get everything ready...if something sparkling hadn't caught his eyes.

"What the-" was all Greg was able to say, as a portal suddenly formed out of nowhere, with Steven, Connie and Lion unexpectedly coming out of; the pink lion skidded on the pavement, before stopping right in front of a shocked Greg, just an inch away from one another, causing him to fall to the pavement on his back and chuckle rather nervously in response.

"Lion! Why didn't you do that indoors instead of breaking the window?! We could've gotten hurt!" Steven voiced in an exasperated tone, to which Lion responded by sitting down and putting Connie and Steven onto the hard asphalt below. Steven simply shook his head, before he and Connie spotted his dad on the ground.

"Hi dad!"

"Hello, Mr. Universe."

"...Hey there, kids," Greg eventually greeted back, picking himself up from the ground and noticed Steven's new look. "Why are you dressed up like that for, Steven? Are you planning on joining a rock band and going into the music biz like your old man?" Greg happily teased his son, though he looked at Steven and noticed that he was far from amused. "Hey I was just kidding, bucko!"

"It's...fine, dad. I'm just not in a good mood," Steven explained to his father, much to Greg's relief. "Dad, just promise you won't freak out for what I'm about to show you," he pleaded.

"Why would I freak out?" Greg asked, a bit worried what Steven was going to show him, but he put the feeling away to be supporting of his son. "Don't worry about it, Steven; after that shape shifting incident, I'm sure I can handle anything," he assured his son a smile.

"Shape shifting incident?" asked Connie, before looking at Steven with an arched eyebrow.

"Yeah, I almost got killed by cats that were trying to take over my body after I tried to shapeshift," Steven said in an unnerving calmness for such a topic.

"Wait, what?!" Connie was more shocked that Steven never told her about the story, much less that it actually happened. What bothered her the most was that Steven treated the incident like it was nothing. However, she shook her head and decided to ask him about the incident for another time. "Steven, why don't you show him what happened to you," Connie suggested, quickly changing the subject.

Steven nodded his head and not wanting to waste any more time, he removed his headband, his glove and lowered his shirt, revealing the gems on his body to his dad. The moment Greg saw the gems on his son's body, he freaked out in a matter of seconds.

"AAH!" Greg screamed, losing his composure and almost fell down to the pavement. Instead, he felt something soft and furry behind his back, as he quickly looked around and saw that Lion had rushed behind him and broke his fall. Though his reaction did nothing for Steven's self esteem.

"Mr. Universe, are you alright?" Connie asked, approaching Greg with a worrisome look.

"I'm alright, Connie, but thanks," Greg replied, with Connie helping him up his feet, before turning his gaze at his son with a worrisome look. "Steven, how did this happened?!"

"Well, Amethyst and I were playing on the beach making a sand castle before a gem crab destroyed it so we went to defeat it but…but…" Steven's eyes started to water, causing Greg to quickly pull his son into a comforting hug just as Steven's tears started to run free. "The Gems…l-lost!"

"There, there, Steven. It's going to be alright," Greg softly whispered to his son. "Don't blame yourself for what happened to them. I'm sure they'll be fine. Maybe the Gems have attached themselves to you to keep you safe."

"Y-you really think so?" Steven asked hopefully, looking at his dad with a tear-stained face.

"I know so," Greg, of course, didn't know for sure, but it was the only conclusion he had for now. "It's probably their way of saying that they're still with you and will keep you safe, even if they're inside their gems."

Steven ceased his crying, wiping the few remaining tears from his face and a smile was formed on his face. It was the first good news he had heard for what felt like a long time.

"Um, guys?" Connie interjected. "I don't want to be a downer but…who's going to be watching Steven?" Both Greg and Steven instantly caught on, realizing that with the Gems gone, Steven was now living alone.

"Looks like I'll move into the beach house and look after Steven until the Gems are back. After all, he can't be all by himself at the beach house," Greg spoke up. Steven's eyes perked up into stars. It was so rare for Steven to spend a lot time with his dad and this was now the perfect time for that.

"As you always say, dad…" Steven began. "If every porkchop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs!" Steven then smile proudly upon finish his dad's favorite phrase, as Greg sheepishly rubbed his head, while Connie and Lion looked at them with confusion.

* * *

Steven, Greg, and Connie were able to head back to the beach house in a few short seconds, courtesy of Lion's teleportation portal ability and fortunately for Greg, this beats traffic by a long shot. After exiting his van, Greg followed his son to the beach house, though as soon as he entered, he noticed two broken shards of glass laying on the floor.

"Steven, who's going to pay for this?" asked Greg.

"We...don't have any money around here," Steven admitted to his dad, before he let out a nervous laugh. Greg then stared at his son for a few seconds before realizing the obvious.

"Looks like I have to pay for this then," Greg simply said with a sad sigh. He could hear his wallet crying in his back pocket. "Guess I'll go unpack."

"How about if I help you, Mr. Universe?" Connie asked.

"Actually, that would be great. Thanks, Connie," Greg expressed his gratitude to her, before he and Connie head to unpack a few things from the van. While the two went out to unload the van, Steven sat on the floor right next to Lion, also laying on the floor and licking his paw.

"I don't know what's going to happen from now on," Steven confided to Lion. "With the Gems gone, I need all the help I can. What do you think I should do, Lion?"

Lion looked at Steven and simply let out a soft growl at Steven, before licking his paw some more.

"You're right, Lion. I shouldn't worry about that for now," Steven thanked him, before getting himself up off the floor and out to the front door. "Anyway, I should help my dad moved his things in here."

Over the course of an hour, Steven, Greg and Connie unpacked the van and moved its contents right into the beach house; some were easy to carry in, while a few needed a bit more muscle to move them. Eventually, the trio were able to get everything out of Greg's van, just as night was starting to set in Beach City.

"Looks like everything is in place," Greg commented, before turning his gaze to the kids. "Thanks for the help. Right now, I need to go back to the car wash."

Greg then head right outside and into his van, before driving back to his workplace, leaving just Steven, Connie and Lion alone in the beach house.

"Thanks for sticking around, Connie; I really needed that," Steven said to Connie.

"No problem, Steven. If you need to tell me anything, don't hesitate to give me a call," said Connie, as Steven nodded his head in response.

"I appreciate that Connie, though with Lion and Dad around, at least I won't feel alone around here," Steven said as he pet Lion's mane.

"Good to see you smiling again. Anyway, I have to go now. Bye, Steven," Connie said, as she left for home. As Steven waved his goodbyes to her, a thought suddenly came to his mind, much to his concern.

'_Who's going to protect the Earth now?'_

**To be continued…**

* * *

**A/N:Yes I know what I said but I've decided to run both this and Return From Limbo at the same time. I feel really good about this story and Return From Limbo is coming along smoothly for those wondering.**

**Now I didn't get much of a reaction for this but it was enough that I think I should continue it. Even if only two people voiced their opinions.**

**Till next time, Sal out!**


	3. The New Guardian Named Steven

_**Ch. 3: The New Guardian Named Steven**_

Beep… Beep… Beep...

A frustratingly tired Steven awoke to the sound of his loud and obnoxious clock; with all the questions running through his mind, he found it hard to get any sleep. Ever since the Crystal Gems were taken out of the picture, the realization of who was left started to pound Steven's head like a sledgehammer; he was now the only Crystal Gem who had a chance of protecting Beach City, and by extension the Earth, from complete and utter destruction. That thought alone could keep anyone awake with fear, let alone a child such as Steven.

'_How am I going to protect Earth all by myself?! I don't know if I can do this every day of my life! I just want to have fun!'_

As much as Steven wished for an answer to come to him, he knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. All he could do was at least try to start his day off on a good start, considering his stomach began to growl at him for food. Steven got out of bed and walked to the fridge in the kitchen; On his way there, Steven noticed that Greg was absent, meaning he had already left for work, leaving Steven all by himself. The feeling of loneliness started to creep up on Steven but it was forced away but the feeling of hunger. He opened the fridge with hungry eyes, only to see the unthinkable. He screamed in despair at the sight before him.

"WE'RE OUT OF FOOD!"

* * *

Dismayed that there was no more food at the house, Steven, without any options left, headed to the Big Donut for a quick bite, but not before he putting on his headband and black leather gloves. The last thing he wanted was Sadie and Lars to be weirded out by his new gems and it would have been completely awkward to explain why they were on him.

"It might not be a very balanced breakfast, but it's better than nothing," he remarked with a smile, before he went inside the Big Donut to get his favorite donut. The smell of warm donuts filled the air and caused Steven's stomach to growl even louder than before.

"Hey Steven, how's…" Sadie trailed off when she saw Steven's headband and gloves. "Whoa! What's with the new look?"

"Are you trying to join a rock band or something?" asked Lars, as he arched an eyebrow. Steven was starting to regret the look as everyone continued to make the same exact joke about it.

"I just...wanted to wear something different for a change," Steven explained to them.

"...If you say so then, Steven," Sadie, as well as Lars, decided to accept Steven's explanation for now as it wasn't terribly important to her.

'_That was a close one,' _Steven thought, before he decided to focus on getting his favorite donut. "I'll have the-"

"Is that...an octopus floating in the sky?" Sadie suddenly asked, interrupting Steven's order, as she and Lars stared outside, prompting Steven to turn to their direction; much to his dismay, there really was an octopus floating in the sky, staring at the frightened beachgoers and shooting what appeared to be spikes right at them, as they began to flee for their lives.

'No, not now! 'I haven't even finish my order!' a dismay Steven thought, but realized that this was not the time to mope around. He turned his attention outside and began to shout as loud as he can. "Lion! I need your help!"

In a matter of seconds, Lion burst through the window, completely shattering it and skid right in front of Steven, as well as a frightened Sadie and Lars.

"S-Steven! Is that a lion?!" Sadie fearfully asked.

"Don't let it get it close to me!" Lars pleaded for his life.

"Maybe I should have gone outside first…" Steven said aloud as he looked at the path of destruction that Lion just left. "Sorry about that, you guys, but no time to explain," Steven simply said, as he hopped onto Lion and summoned his shield. "Onward, Lion!"

Lion nodded his head and let out a roar, as he and Steven rushed outside and leaped backed out, shattering another window, as the two headed for the beach, with Sadie and Lars calming down a bit once Lion was out of their sight.

"T-Thank goodness that's over," Lars stated.

"I can't say the same thing with the windows," Sadie pointed out, shaking her head in dismay, with Lars face palming upon this realization.

"Great! Even his pet destroys everything!"

* * *

The beach was suppose to be a place where anyone could have a good time, from surfing the waves to checking out all the beach babes. Instead, a gem octopus suddenly rose out of the see, with yellow skin and yellow crystals pointing out from the end of each tentacle, all as long as the body, with spikes protruding out of its head, vaguely resembling a crown, hovering above the sky and staring at the crowd with its menacing orange eye, before it started to shoot out spikes from its tentacles, forcing every beachgoer to flee for their lives, too frightened to notice a certain young boy and his pet pink lion passing by them.

"Look Lion, there it is! It's a Gemtopus!" Steven called out and pointed his finger at the Gemtopus, as it continued to attack every living thing on the beach. Steven aimed his shield at the gem octopus, steady his aim, before chucking his shield with one mighty throw, hitting the back of its head, as the Gemtopus turned around and finally saw Steven and Lion.

"Hey One-Eye! That's for interrupting my order!" Steven shouted.

The Gemtopus responded to Steven's yelling by immediately shooting rows of spikes at him and Lion, the former blocking with his bubble, protecting them from the raining spikes and sending them back, forcing the Gemtopus to back off and dodge. With Lion's speed evading one rounds of projectiles after another, they closed the distance that the Gemtopus had to cease shooting its spikes and to attack them with its tentacles.

"Here goes nothing!" Steven exclaimed, summoning his shield once more, before he threw it at the Gemtopus. But as soon as it made a direct hit, however, it bounced off the monster, leaving only a single, insignificant scratch behind.

"Dang it!" Steven cursed out loud, just as the Gemtopus began to shoot its spikes once again.

Lion, though, unleashed his sonic blast at the Gemtopus, destroying the spikes and one of its tentacles, causing the Gemtopus to cringe in pain. Lion used the same method a few times at the Gemtopus, creating more pain for it as it continued to lose its limbs, until it proved too much for the Gemtopus to handle, forcing it into a retreat.

"Thanks for the help, Lion," Steven thanked Lion, who simply growl back in response. But then, a sudden realization came to Steven. "Aw man, you did most of the work and I barely did anything at all."

Saddened by this fact, Steven and Lion head back home; his stomach still growled for food, but he wasn't in the mood for anything to eat anymore.

* * *

It was noon by the time Steven and Lion came back home, as Lion easily let Steven down so he could go inside. Steven was still down from his fight against the Gemtopis, as his mind continued to produce negative thoughts about himself.

'_How am I suppose to protect the Earth when I can't even take down one monster? There's no way I can't be a Crystal Gem at this rate,' _Steven thought as depression began to set in, before he turned his attention to Lion.

"Thanks for not breaking the windows this time, Lion," Steven said as he pet the mane of his friend, causing a slight purr out of the beast, as they head up to the beach house and went in, only to be confronted by his dad.

"Hey Steven," Greg greeted his son with a tone of annoyance.

"Hey dad," Steven greeted back, before he noticed that his dad was quite peeved. "What's wrong?"

"I got a call from the Big Donut…" Greg began his explanation. "They told me Lion destroyed two windows at the store and I have to pay for the damage he caused!" Greg then pointed his finger at Lion, who laid on the floor and licking his paw, seemingly uninterested in their conversation. "Is this going to be a regular thing with him? I don't have the money to keep paying for this, Steven," Greg's words made Steven feel even more depressed than he ever was before. It sounded like his dad was telling him that if this keeps up, he couldn't keep Lion anymore; Steven couldn't handle losing another friend.

"I'm sorry dad. I swear, Lion never meant to do that on purpose," Steven insisted with a sad tone, unable to look his dad in the eye. "He was just coming to help me out," The sadness in Steven's voice caused Greg's demeanor to soften up, as he saw how miserable his son was.

"Hey buddy; I didn't mean to make you upset," Greg asked, concerned for his son. "I just don't want Lion breaking anymore windows,"

"That's not it," Steven said as took a deep breath and explained the event to his dad, "Lion and I were facing this floating gem octopus on the beach today and it attacked us with spikes and tentacles. I tried using my shield, but it did nothing; Lion did most of the work and scared it away. How am I suppose to protect the Earth if I can't even land one hit that even looks like it did anything?"

Once Steven finished his story, Greg continued to stare at his son with sympathy. If there was a time his son needed some words of encouragement, this would be it.

"Steven…" Greg began. "I'm sorry that it didn't turned out the way you wanted. Sure, your first fight was a complete bonker but you'll eventually get there. You're just going to have to be stronger without the Gems' guidance."

The moment Greg mentioned the Crystal Gems, Steven suddenly burst into tears, as Greg was taken aback by his son crying.

"Steven, wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Greg pleaded to his son.

Steven, however, continued to cry, burying his face into his arm, as he rushed to his room and crashed into his pillow face first, as Greg looked down on the floor at his miserable attempt at cheering up his son.

"Me and my big mouth," he sadly said to himself.

* * *

A few more minutes of crying later, Steven finally calmed himself down, wiping off the few remaining tears from his face. He looked around the beach house and noticed that Lion was the only one here, sleeping on the floor, before he looked outside and saw that his dad was busy washing his van with a disappointing look on his face.

"I know dad meant well, but I still miss Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl," said Steven, his voice still shaky from crying, before an idea came to him. "I wonder if Connie wants to hang out for a bit."

Having made up his mind, Steven pulled out his cell phone and dialed up Connie's phone number, as he waited patiently for her response, before he heard the sound of the phone being picked up a few seconds later.

"Hello?" Steven was relieved when he heard Connie's voice on the other end.

"Hey Connie, it's me," Connie could hear the suffering in Steven's voice.

"Hey Steven, are you okay?" she asked, worried for her friend.

"Not really," Steven admitted. "My day isn't going so well. I tried to have breakfast here, but I didn't find any food, so I went to the Big Donut for some donuts. But then this floating gem octopus showed up out of nowhere at the beach and I had no choice but to face it. I got to the beach with Lion, but my shield barely did anything to it, while Lion scared it away. How am I suppose to protect the Earth if I can't even defeat anything? I feel so worthless!"

"Steven, you're not worthless," Connie stated otherwise in a firm voice, hoping to rouse Steven's spirit. "You've always managed to save the Earth one way or another. You're brave, selfless, unbelievably friendly, and righteous."

"Heh heh, righteous," Steven chuckled at the last part, with a noticeable blush appearing on his face. "Am I really all of that, Connie?" Steven asked, now feeling a bit bashful.

"Of course!" she happily exclaimed. "How else would you manage to convince Lapis to return the ocean back to Earth?"

"Yeah...I guess I really am all of that," Steven happily accepted this, feeling a bit better now. "Thanks, Connie. I appreciate that."

"No problem," Connie insisted. "So what else did you want to talk about or are you just looking for me to sing more praise?" Connie asked jokingly, causing Steven to chuckle a bit more.

"I was actually wondering if you wanted to come over and hang out," Steven suggested, his voice slightly more stable.

"Absolutely! A Dogcopter game just came out and I was thinking we could play together!" Connie exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Wow! They made a Dogcopter game?!" Steven gasped, surprised to hear this.

"Steven, they'll make a game about anything if they think it'll make money," Connie explained with a giggle. "I'll be right over with it!"

"Alright!" Steven agreed, before they both hung up. Steven was hyped to play the Dogcopter game with his best friend in the world.

* * *

Just as she had promised, Connie arrived at the beach house with the Dogcopter game that she planned for her and Steven to check out, as Steven happily welcome her in and both went to play the game on his video game system. As soon as the video game started, they began to play for many an hour; the sun had started to go down, but as far as Steven was concerned, he was actually having a good time since this morning, more so with Connie around.

"Wow! This game is so much fun!" Steven shouted with joy. "Dogcopter plays exactly like the character!"

"It really is," Connie agreed. "It's rare to have these types of games around these days."

"Yeah it is; a movie licensed game that's actually good! I'm really glad you showed me this game!" Steven commented to Connie with a wide smile. "It's what I needed after what happened this morning."

"Don't mention it, Steven. I'm glad you like it," Connie returned with an equally wide smile of her own.

"Hey Connie?" Steven asked, as a blush started to come to his face.

"Yeah?" Connie responded.

"Thanks for spending time with me," Steven expressed his gratitude, thankful to have a friend like her. "It helps take my mind off after what happened."

"I think I should be thanking you," Connie said, now with a blush on her face.

"For what?" asked a curious Steven.

"For being my best friend," Connie admitted, as she started to lean forward towards Steven.

But just then, a horrible roar screeched out of nowhere, forcing Steven and Connie to drop what they were doing and covered their ears to tune the terrible noise out.

"Steven, what is that?!" Connie shouted.

"I don't know, but I think I have a bad feeling about this!" Steven yelled, as he and Connie turned to the window and saw…

"Oh no! It's back!" Steven shouted in dismay, as he saw the Gemtopus hovering in the sky.

"Is that the gem octopus you were talking about?" asked a fearful Connie.

"It is!" Steven admitted. "Connie, find my dad and make sure you find a safe spot. Lion and I will handle this."

Connie nodded her head, understanding Steven's demands, as she head out of the beach house to locate Greg, with Steven hopping on Lion and both head out to face the Gemtopus once more.

"Are you back for round 2?" Steven taunted the Gemtopus.

The Gemtopus responded by shooting spikes at them, but at a much rapid pace than their last confrontation; Steven barely summoned his shield on time, blocking the incoming spikes, combined with Lion's speed to outmaneuver them with great accuracy, before Lion positioned himself in front of the Gemtopus, ready to unleash his sonic blast.

"Alright, Lion! Go for it!"

But before Lion can use his sonic blast, without warning, one of the Gemtopus's tentacles whipped him in a flash, sending both flying; Lion managed to pick himself up from the sand, picked up Steven with his teeth and avoided the second Gemtopus' attack in the nick of time, as Greg and Connie watched from the sidelines, having taken cover from a huge rock.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," Steven noted, getting back on Lion's back, as they continued to avoid the tentacles.

Lion tried to find a good spot to use his sonic blast, but the Gemtopus prevented him from doing so, forcing him to continue to avoid its tentacles as fast as he can, eventually going underneath the Gemtopus, preparing to unleash his sonic blast once again. But the Gemtopus, having seemingly anticipated this, quickly whipped Lion, knocking him and Steven from afar, to Connie and Greg's horror.

"Steven!" They shouted, their shouting earning the Gemtopus' attention and floated right towards them. Steven barely got up, just in time to see the Gemtopus heading to Connie and Greg.

"No!" Steven shouted. Despite the early injuries he suffered, Steven managed to run directly at the Gemtopus, ignoring the strain on his body. He can't let that monster get to them; not on his watch.

"You... leave them... **ALONE**!" Steven yelled, ready to summon his shield.

But then, something amazing happened; instead of his shield, in his hand was none other than Pearl's spear, throwing it out of instinct. After it left his hand, it had dawned on Steven what he just pulled off.

"H-How did I do that?" Steven asked himself, as the spear buried deep itself in the Gemtopus's eye, causing it to squeal in pain, before disappearing into a cloud of dust, leaving a yellow gem behind, as it landed on the soft sands, with everyone approaching it.

"That was a close one, Steven," Greg remarked, as he watched his son bubbled the gem that was the Gemtopus and send it back to the temple.

"Yeah, I guess that was amazing," Steven admitted.

"But Steven, how did you managed to summon Pearl's spear?" asked a stunned Connie.

"I...I really don't know," Steven confessed, looking at Connie with uncertainty. He had no idea on how he actually summoned Pearl's spear and there was only one thing that was racing in his mind.

'_Did Pearl lend me her spear?'_

**To be continued…**

* * *

**A/N Steven, you're too OP now. How is it fair when you get all the cool stuff and the other guys get nothing but pain and misery?... Well I guess you get a little of that too but I digress. **

**I know it's a bit early to be cranking these out but you have no idea how much easier it is to write these compared to Limbo's. 3000 words is a lot better than 6000. That also means that this is a lot easier to proofread and get out.**

**I hope to hear what you guys have to say about this chapter. Constructive criticism and suggestions will be noted and I do read and appreciate every review.**

**Till next time, Sal out!**


	4. Adapt or Perish

_**Ch. 4: Adapt or Perish**_

After defeating the Gemtopus in one of the most bizarre events that they could ever think of, Steven, with Connie, Greg and Lion all sitting on the couch as his audience, looked on as Steven tested out just how much power he's been given.

"Now let's see if I can do it again," Steven said, as he closed his eyes to concentrate, just praying that what he did before wasn't a stroke of luck.

"Steven, are you sure you know what you're doing?" asked a worried Greg.

"I'm not so sure about it myself," Steven admitted, his eyes still closed and trying hard to concentrate. Eventually, this proved too much for his head to handle, forcing him to stop concentrating. "Aw man! It didn't work!"

"Maybe you should think about how the Gems exactly summoned their weapons," Connie suggest. "There might be some clue to summoning them."

"Um…they never really explained it very well to me," Steven replied nervously, remembering Garnet's was by far the most confusing; it nearly gave him a headache. Amethyst and Pearl's contradicted each other and he still doesn't fully understand what exactly allowed him to summon his shield beyond "just doing it". "Darn it! I wish I had paid a lot more attention…or at least these came with an instruction manual!" Steven shouted in frustration, raising both arms above his head.

But then, the gem on his forehead suddenly glow, astonishing everyone in the room, as a spear was summoned out of it and rested itself onto Steven's hand, who continued to stare at it in shock.

"Well...I don't remember Pearl saying getting frustrated summoned it," Steven remarked, looking at the spear in his hand, towering over him. "But I'm not going to question it that much."

"Maybe the gemstone didn't react by anger, but by your action," Connie theorized. "Try moving your hand on your chest and see if you summon another weapon from it. Do it like Amethyst does."

Steven nodded his head, putting his hand on the gemstone embedded on his chest. Before they knew it, Steven managed to pull out a whip from the chest stone, accidentally cutting the coffee table in half with it.

"Whoops," Steven muttered, laughing nervously by his action, before he looked back at the whip. "Maybe summoning their weapons won't be as hard as I thought. In fact…"

Without any hesitation, Steven punched both of his knuckles together and almost immediately, two gauntlets wrapped around his arms, both surprising and pleasing him all at once.

"Cool!" Steven exclaimed, before the weight of the gauntlets forced him to fall face first. "I need to work on that later."

"Sorry to interrupt the moment, but what happened to Pearl's spear?" Greg asked, as Steven picked himself up, looked around and noticed that the spear was nowhere to be found. Not only that, Amethyst's whip was also missing.

'I wonder,' Steven thought, before he dismissed the gauntlets and re-summoned the spear from his head once more, resting on his palm and re-summoned his whip from his chest as well. "Looks like I can only carry two weapons at a time," Steven summoned his shield and saw the spear vanishing from his hand, confirming his hunch. "I'll take that as a yes."

"At least you got some added protection," Greg commented, just glad to see that Steven wasn't moping anymore. "I bet you won't feel like you can't take down those monsters now."

"You're right, dad! Think of the combinations I could come up with!" Steven yelled with excitement. He could already imagine what he can do with them.

"Whoa, Steven! Don't get yourself carried away!" Connie suddenly spoke with concern, snapping him back to reality. "You don't want to overdo it if you're facing another monster."

"She's got a point," Greg agreed. "Just be safe out there and use them responsibly."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," Steven assured them, understanding their concern. Then a thought occurred to Greg.

"But there's something I still don't get…" he began. "Even though you hadn't paid any attention to what Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl said, you can still summoned their weapons like it was nothing."

"I'm surprised I can do it either, but maybe the Gems are helping me out, despite being in their gemstones," Steven concluded.

"I guess that would make sense," Connie and Greg decided to just accept this for the moment, before the former noticed that it was almost dinner time. "Look at the time, Steven. I have to get home. I'll see you next time."

"Bye Connie," Steven smiled with a wave to his friend.

After they bid each other a goodbye, Connie strolled out of the beach house as she headed back home, leaving just Steven, Greg and Lion all by themselves.

"Today was surprising in more than one way, right, Steven?" Greg happily joked, but noticed that his son suddenly downed now. "What's the matter? I thought you would be happy after summoning your new weapons."

"It's not that," Steven explained. "It's just that I only could summon their weapons because I couldn't help them. I don't want to be rewarded for being so weak and helpless."

"Steven…" Greg attempted to console his son. "Don't beat yourself up over it. I'm sure you would have done what you can to save them, but some situations are beyond our control."

"That still doesn't make me feel better! That only makes me feel more useless!" Steven stated otherwise, prompting Greg to think much harder. Consoling him didn't do much, but maybe there is another way to cheer his son up.

"How about if you come and help me at my work? A lot of cars are probably going to drop by and I could use more than one set of hands," Greg suggested. "Think of it as a bonding experience."

"...Alright, I guess I'll help," Steven eventually agreed, despite his hesitation about the idea. He didn't have much to do around the house, so getting some fresh air might help him a little; at least, he hope it would.

* * *

Ecstatic to spend some quality time with his son, Greg took Steven to his work and fortunately for him, they arrived just in time, as there were cars lining up in need of a good wash, from the front to all the way in the back. Both father and son got out of the van and began to wash every car one by one, scrubbing off the dirt and grime from each vehicle.

"You see, Steven…" an optimistic Greg started his explanation, washing the dirt off from the windshield. "Every summer, I would have at least a dozen cars popping up here a day and I have to get through every nook and cranny just to get…are you doodling on the asphalt?" Greg stopped what he was doing when he saw that Steven was indeed doodling on the asphalt with a pointy rock.

"Huh?" Steven stopped what he was doing and looked up to his dad. "Oh, yeah, um, sure. Something about three months and dirt."

"...Alright then," Greg simply said, before he resumed where he left off. "As I was saying, I have to get through every nook and cranny just to get rid of every piece of dirt. I don't make a lot of money, but I make just enough to keep this business afloat and...are you even listening?" Greg stopped once more and looked at Steven, who was still drawing on the asphalt with boredom on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening, dad," Steven claimed; he wasn't even trying to fake it.

'_This isn't what I had hoped,' _Greg thought, ceasing his explanation and walked over to see what Steven was drawing. His heart sank, however, when he saw what was down there: it was a picture of Steven and the Gems hanging out together, fighting off some weird monster that looked like a pufferfish. 'It's worse than I thought; he just misses them so much,' Greg instinctively wrapped his arms around his son and pulled him into a hug, one Steven didn't hesitate to return to his dad.

"It's alright, Steven. I missed them too, but they wouldn't be happy if you're just moping around all the time," Greg consoled his son.

"I know, but I just can't get over it; I'm sorry for acting this way," Steven said to his dad.

"That's alright and I understand that, Steven, but if you didn't want to come here, you could have let me know. I would have understand," Greg insisted. "Now, I have an idea that I know will cheer you up, but first, let me finish cleaning up this last car."

Steven looked at his dad and simply nodded, as Greg went back to finish cleaning up the final car as fast he could, getting rid of what grime he could find. Once the car was clean and spotless, Greg got his payment for today and saw the driver taking off to his next destination, before approaching his son, who looked at his dad with curiosity.

"So what do you have in mind to cheer me up, dad?" asked Steven.

"That's simple, Steven…" Greg began. "We're going to have a fun time at the boardwalk, just the two of us! Eating cotton candy and riding every rides before our stomachs can't handle it anymore! Isn't that exciting?!"

Expecting his son to be very happy to go to the boardwalk, Greg noticed that Steven was rubbing the back of his head in a rather uncomfortable manner and his eyes darting back and forth in a rapid pace. Something was very wrong with this scene. He should have squeaked with excitement by now.

"Why the long face, Steven? I thought you would like it," said a confused Greg, prompting his son to stop what he was doing and, after hesitating for a while, took a deep breath and finally spoke.

"...Oh, about that…"

* * *

"NO!" Mr. Smiley bluntly told Greg.

"No? What do you mean no?!" Greg demanded an answer from Mr. Smiley. He couldn't believe what he was hearing out of Smiley's mouth.

"Do I have to repeat myself, Mr. Universe? No means no and that's final!" Mr. Smiley remained firm with his decision.

"That's totally unfair!" Greg protested. "My son is still a kid! He wouldn't even hurt a fly! You can't just robbed his rights to ride on every ride around on the boardwalk! At least explain what he did!"

"He destroyed the Tea Cup ride a few months back! He landed right on top of me while I was operating it and endangered everyone else on the boardwalk," Mr. Smiley explained, prompting a surprised Greg to turn his gaze at his son.

"That was you, Steven?!" Greg was still amazed how his son was involved in something like that. He was aware of the Tea Cup incident that took place, but never imagined that Steven was linked to it.

"Yeah, I forgot to mention about that," Steven sheepishly admitted. Greg continued to stare at his son, before turning his gaze back at Mr. Smiley.

"Mr. Smiley, I'm sorry that had to happen, I really am, but Steven probably never meant to do it on purpose. I'm sure he learned his lesson by now and it's not like he'll do it again. Can't you give him another chance?"

"The answer is still no," Mr. Smiley replied, with Greg sighing with disappointment. "I'm not going to take my chances, even if I am grateful that Steven and his buddies did return the ocean back to Beach City."

'There has to be a way to change his mind,' Greg thought, stroking his beard intently and trying to come up with something. 'What's it going to take to-'

Greg's thoughts were interrupted, however, by several screams from a distance, prompting him and his son to turn to the direction and saw several beachgoers fleeing for safety from what appeared to be...shark fins popping out of the sand?

'Aw great! Just what I needed and at a time like this!' Greg thought in dismay by the sight, while Steven, acting on his instincts, took a deep breath and shouted as loud as he can.

"Lion! I need your help!"

As if his prayers were answered, something sparkling was shining within the nearest stand; before long, a portal appeared out of nowhere, with Lion coming right out of it, destroying the entire stand and scaring a lot of people all at once. He then calmly approached Steven and allowed him to hop onto his back, riding off to the beach to face the latest threat, leaving Mr. Smiley and Greg behind.

"My stand!" Mr. Smiley shouted with horror by the destruction. His horror was then replaced by complete anger and focused his attention towards Greg, who can only sigh in response. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a check book.

"Will you take a check?"

* * *

Steven and Lion arrived at the beach, now entirely deserted due to the absence of so many beachgoers that previously occupied the area. But the moment he arrived, he saw two shark fins popping out from the sands, both heading right towards him and Lion. Fortunately for Steven, Lion managed to outrun them, allowing him to summon Pearl's spear; he tried to jab the sharks underneath the sands, but it barely slowed them down. Likewise, when Lion managed to find a safe spot from a distance, he used his sonic blast at them, but the sharks simply evaded it like it was nothing by hiding underneath the sand.

"Darn it! Stay still already, you dumb sharks!" Steven cursed back at them.

Apparently hearing his insult, both sand sharks leaped upwards in unison, giving Steven a closer look at them: they looked like any sharks in the ocean, except that their hides were dark yellow, their eyes more cat-like, with their fins on their back much longer and there was a gem embedded on their chest. Steven stared at them for a second before he realized what they was about to do next.

"Lion, move!" Steven ordered, as Lion quickly leaped to his left, barely avoiding their sharp teeth in time.

"That was a close one," said Steven. "How am I suppose to stop them if they're just going to keep swimming in the sand like that?!"

Steven didn't have time to find the answer, however, when one of the sand sharks unexpectedly leaped out of nowhere and knocked a surprised Steven down to the sand with its tail, before quickly swimming towards him with its opened jaws.

"I need a weapon here and fast! Any kind would do!" a frantic Steven spoke, before he randomly put his hand on his chest and summoned up Amethyst's whip, whipping the sand shark to the side just before it got close to him.

'_Thank goodness for that!' _Steven thought, sighing with relief, before he saw Lion getting assaulted by another sand shark. Lion tried to hit it back with his sonic blast, but the sand shark kept dodging it.

"Don't worry Lion! I'm coming!" Steven shouted and ran towards Lion as fast he could, eventually making his way to him, prompting the sand shark to go after Steven instead. "You leave him alone right now!" he declared, punching both of his knuckles, replacing Amethyst's whip with Garnet's gauntlets and bashed the sand shark in its face.

"Lion, are you alright?" Steven worriedly asked, as Lion simply let out a soft roar, much to his relief. "I'm glad you're not hurt. Come on, let's finish this!"

Steven hopped onto Lion and roam around the beach, looking for the sand sharks that had disappeared underneath the sands after Steven attacked them. At the same time, a thought occurred to him, mainly on summoning the Gems' own weapons.

"If I can swap them one at a time, can I do it much quicker?" Steven muttered.

Before he could find the answer to his question, the sand sharks suddenly popped right in front of him; without any hesitation, Steven quickly summoned Pearl's spear, slashing them both downward, as they tumbled onto the sands. Not wanting them to make another quick escape, Steven summoned Amethyst's whip. snaring one sand shark by its tail and slamming the other with it. Once they were completely dazed, Steven jumped off from Lion, summoning Garnet's gauntlets and directly punched them both, causing their bodies to turn to dust and leaving behind their brown gems in their place.

"At least they won't be terrorizing anyone at the beach anymore," Steven commented, bubbling both gems back to the temple. Then, he realized what he just did back there. "Hey! I took down them on my own and I didn't rely for help this time!"

Steven heard Lion roaring from behind, prompting him to rub his head sheepishly in response.

"But you did a good job as well, Lion. Glad you were here with me," Steven thanked Lion, petting his mane to show his appreciation. "Anyway, let's head back to the boardwalk."

Lion simply stared at Steven, before they head back to the boardwalk, the latter feeling much better now.

* * *

It was night time by the time Steven and Lion arrived back at the boardwalk and the only person that was standing around was his dad, who looked quite peeved and began to approach them.

"Steven…" he began. "Do you know how much I had to pay for the stand Lion destroyed? It was twice the amount than the windows that he destroyed from the Big Donut!"

"Sorry about that," Steven apologized, laughing sheepishly upon hearing this. "He'll try to be careful from now on, won't you Lion," he finished with a smile, as Lion just yawned.

"Steven, are you...smiling?" Greg asked, noticing the sudden change in his son's demeanor and personality.

"You bet I am!" Steven proudly replied. "I manage to take down two monsters in the beach on my own! I didn't need Lion to backpack me through the whole fight this time!"

Greg continued to look at his son, surprised that Steven had taken down two monsters and made it back out on his own. At the same time, however, he couldn't help but be proud of his son. He was glad that Steven's behavior improved and wasn't moping around like he had been for the last few days. It was something he wanted to see all day long.

"I'm glad to see you're happy again," Greg said to his son. "Anyway, let's head back home and call it a day."

"You got it!" Steven happily said, hopping onto Lion, as they and Greg head back to the beach house, though not before he looked up to the sky.

'_I hope you guys get back real soon. I don't know if I'll have enough money to keep paying off the destruction Lion will keep causing at this rate!'_


	5. Don't Call it a Date

_**Ch. 5: Don't Call it a Date**_

'_What's taking so long?' _Steven thought, as he continued to stare at the ceiling from the couch.

It had been a month since Steven found himself as the sole defender of Earth and he was starting to get worried. The Gems, not even the carefree Amethyst, still hadn't regenerated and their gems were still stuck onto his body. He spent the last few days wondering if they would ever come back. The only one he can count on to brighten his day was Connie; Lion was nice to have around, but it always felt like a conversation with a rock that shoot sonic booms and his dad, Greg, was a hit or miss, whether he would cheer him up or make him feel worse.

Although Steven worried about the Gems, he kept his worries about them never coming back to himself, knowing full well that anyone he knew would just say the same thing: "They'll be back soon." How long is soon? Another day? A week? A month? A year?

Steven sat on the couch, alone in only his swimming trunks and his sandals, his body sweating up like a flood. It was a blisteringly hot summer day and he was spending it waiting for a friend. Lion was off doing...Lion things. If he needed to show Steven something that they needed to fix somewhere in the world, he would come to him right away. Greg was out at the car wash, working of course, dealing with a new rush of beach tourists. Everyone else he knew were either busy doing something important or Steven just couldn't find them at all, except for one and that was Connie. He and Connie were planning on going swimming together and Steven was busy waiting for his friend to come over, all the while remaining patient. Finally, he heard a knocking on the door, before it opened to reveal Connie, carrying a beach umbrella and a towel. She was also in a cyan blue one-piece swimsuit with a t-shirt over it.

"Sorry I took so long," Connie apologized, as Steven walked over with a smile, "I had to sneak out, since my dad doesn't want me swimming without someone he trusts watching us."

"Why don't you want me meeting your dad so badly?" Steven inquired.

"...Let's just say he was another reason I didn't have a lot of friends," Connie remarked with a hint of anger in her voice. "It might be too much to ask, but do you know any...private spots for us to swim?"

"P-Private?" Steven asked, a bit uneasy about the request. Sure he hung out with Connie alone plenty of times, but this made him feel different than before. "Why?"

"I-It's, I mean, n-no reason, well I g-guess there is a reason," Connie struggled to find the right words. "I don't want my dad to just drive by and see us and make a scene. Please, Steven?"

Connie pleaded with begging eyes, becoming bigger with each second. Steven did his best to look the other way, but there was no point in resisting it and simply sighed in response, relenting to her demands. She was too cute whenever she did that.

"Well...there is this one place..." Steven looked at the warp pad wearily. "But I'm not sure if it's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Man-eating fish?" Steven sheepishly replied, hoping it wouldn't ruin Connie's day.

"...Is that all?" Connie asked once more, showing an air of confidence. Steven and Lion had been dealing with much worse problems than a few fish that she was sure the two would be fine. Not to mention Steven was letting her use the Rose Sword whenever she wanted to practice with it. Though Steven was a bit hesitant to take her. Not because it was too dangerous or because he didn't like spending time with her; far from it in fact. It's just the thought of spending time alone with her on a beach in the middle of nowhere with the nearest intelligent life isn't for several hundred miles wasn't lost on him. He wasn't that oblivious to things like that.

"It used to be inhabited by an invisible Gem monster, but it's not there anymore," Steven admitted, much to Connie's surprise. However, she decided to ask about it another time.

"Fair enough then," she simply accepted Steven's words.

"Are you sure you still wanted to go there?"

"I'm positive, Steven, so long as my parents aren't able to find us until we come back," Connie reaffirmed her decision. Well there goes dissuading her from going there.

Seeing that she had made up her mind, Steven nodded his head. "It's in the middle of the Caribbean so I doubt anyone we know will find us," he explained to Connie's delight. With that, he took her by the hand to the warp pad, getting a light blush out of her and within seconds, the pair disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

Just as suddenly as they had disappeared from the beach house, Steven and Connie emerged in another warp pad, finding themselves in an exotic and beautiful tropical jungle, covered by large, tall lush trees and plants alike, a beach from where the duo could see from a distance, covered in smooth white sands and crystal clear oceans, along with the sound of a waterfall close by. The moment Connie laid eyes on the scenery, she was instantly awestruck by her new surroundings.

"Steven…" she began, her eyes still filled with mesmerization. "This...is...beautiful! I never thought such a place would have ever existed."

"Yeah, that's what I thought as well," Steven admitted, being somewhat relaxed. "Though what happened here isn't very… pleasant."

"Then we'll have to fix that. I didn't know why you wouldn't want to take me here in the first place," said Connie. "This is wonderful!"

"When you put it that way, I guess it's great," Steven agreed, relaxing himself a little. "Now how about we have some fun while we're at it?"

"My thoughts exactly."

With those words spoken, Steven and Connie headed towards the beach, intending to have as much fun as they could for as long as the sun was up.

* * *

Steven and Connie didn't know how long they were on the island, but they couldn't care less about time, especially when they have each other for company; for the most part, they spend most of it on building sand castles, playing frisbee with one another and swimming in the ocean. Aside from a close encounter with the island's strange fishes, their day on the island proved to be a fun one, but for Steven, it was the first time that he ever felt this happy in a long time. He even managed to get a decent tan going during all the fun.

"Steven...you're smiling," Connie was a bit shocked to see a smile on her friend's face after everything that's happened, before she smiled back in return. "You're really smiling."

"Looks like I am," Steven acknowledged Connie's claim, with a light blush on his face. "I haven't been this happy since Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl went back into their gems. Still, I wish I could see them again."

"I'm sure they'll come back eventually," Connie did her best to assure him, before she sighed and looked down to the ground.

"Connie, what's wrong?" Steven asked, perplexed by her sudden change in demeanor.

"Steven, remember when I said I snuck out of my house?"

"Yeah, you said it was because your dad didn't want us swimming without someone watching us," Steven responded.

"I wasn't entirely honest. I snuck out of my house because I got into an argument with my parents last night," Connie admitted.

"What happened?" Steven asked, stunned by his friend's admission.

"Mom and dad were asking what I have been doing for the last month…" she began. "I told them that I was hanging with you and they wanted me to stop. We began arguing back and forth and…" Connie trailed off, her voice starting to get shaky and she could feel tears coming out from her eyes.

"It's alright, Connie. You don't have to finish," said Steven as he put a hand on her shoulder, prompting Connie to take a deep breath and wiped the tears off of her face, before facing her friend.

"Thanks Steven, I really appreciate it, but it just seems so unfair. I made a friend for the first time and all of a sudden they wanted me to stop just like that?"

"Maybe they're just worried, Connie," Steven suggested. "Sure, it might not look like it, but deep down, they care about you and just wanted to make sure nothing bad happens to you."

"I still wish they could trust me and get to know you more," said an unconvinced Connie.

Steven opened his mouth, but couldn't find the right words to use. But before he could, he and Connie heard what sounded like rustlings from the bushes; after a few seconds, it suddenly stopped as it had happened.

"W-What was that?" asked a shakened Steven.

"I-I don't know," Connie nervously replied.

Suddenly, something burst out of the bushes, allowing a stunned Steven and Connie to get a full glimpse of the mysterious entity; in front of the duo was a shadow-like being that looked almost humanoid, save for its left eye, which was embedded with a gem. It didn't took Steven too long to realize what he and Connie were facing.

"Connie, take cover!" he ordered, with Connie nodding her head and headed for safety, as Steven summoned his shield, ready to face the threat. "You picked the wrong day to mess with me!"

Without any hesitation, Steven threw his shield right at the Shadow Gem; without warning, it split its body halfway, with the shield going through it, before reforming back to its original shape and quickly leaped right towards Steven, its claw stretched out for the attack. Undaunted, Steven summoned Garnet's gauntlet, barely blocking the Shadow Gem's attempt and tried to counter it with a barrage of punches. The Shadow Gem, however, kept forming one hole after another on its body, allowing Steven's fists to go right through them, before grabbing both arms and promptly threw Steven to a nearby tree, slumping back down to the sands in pain.

_'Darn it!' _Steven cursed, barely getting himself up from the sand, as he dismissed the gauntlets and summoned Pearl's spear in its place. But when he turned around to face the Shadow Gem once more, he noticed that it was nowhere to be found. "Where did it go?"

Unwilling to drop his guard down, Steven tightened his grip on Pearl's spear, cautiously looking around, hoping to make the first strike when the Shadow Gem gave its presence away. But just when it appeared to be silent…

"Steven, watch out!" Steven heard Connie's voice and turned to its direction, only to be met by a mysterious powder blown right into his face and soon, everything suddenly turned dark.

* * *

"Bleh! What was that?!" Steven shouted, trying to rub most of the powder off of his face and waited for his vision to clear up; when it did, however, the first thing he saw is not the white sandy beach, but a desert landscape that seemed to stretch for miles after endless miles. It was an unsettling sight that Steven wasn't expecting at all.

"W-Where am I?" Steven asked with a tone of fear and confusion, hearing nothing but the echo of his own voice. He looked everywhere, hoping to see someone...anyone in this unfamiliar landscape. But then, from a distance, he noticed a familiar figure standing out, much to his joy.

"Connie, you're here!" Steven exclaimed and rushed towards her with much speed, but when he got closer, he noticed the frown expression forming on her face. "Connie, what's wrong?

"Why do I bother putting up with you?"

"W-What?" was all Steven could say. He was utter speechless from the venomous tone coming out from Connie's voice, as she continued to talk.

"All you do is whine about the gems and how you miss them. What about me, huh? Did it ever occur to you that maybe there was something else in your life that you needed to focus on too? Looks like we were never meant to be after all, Steven. Let's move on with our lives and never cross each other's path ever again," as soon as Connie was finished, she turned around and walked towards the opposite direction.

"Connie, come back!" Steven pleaded, his eyes filled with tears and attempted to follow her.

Suddenly, a huge sandstorm appeared out of nowhere, stopping Steven's attempts in its track, seemingly sweeping the entire desert in its wrath, followed by the sky turning completely black. Then, after what felt like an eternity, the sandstorm disappeared, allowing Steven to see three certain people he thought he would never see again.

"Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl! You're back! I miss you guys so much!" Steven excitedly shouted at the top of his lungs and immediately rushed towards to the trio. But his excitement and joy disappeared when he saw that all three Crystal Gems were frowning at him. "...Guys?"

"This is all your fault!" Garnet furiously shouted, pointing her finger at him.

"Wha-?" Steven barely managed to speak, before Amethyst cut him off.

"Why didn't you help us at all?! You just stood there and did nothing, coward!"

"I wanted to help, but-" before Steven could offer them an explanation, Pearl spoke up, prompting him to remain silent.

"I can't believe Rose gave up her physical body to bring you into this world. We thought you would make a great addition to the team, but it looks like we were wrong. You are a disgrace, both as a Crystal Gem and to your mother!"

Pearl's words pierced Steven like a dagger dug deep into his heart; he was left motionless from each criticism the Gems have gave to him and he didn't know how to respond back. His whole world came crashing down right before his own eyes.

"Goodbye forever Steven!" Pearl finished her sentence, before she, Garnet and Amethyst turned their backs against him and walked away towards the distance.

"Guys, please come back!" Steven tearfully pleaded with all of might, but his words fell to deaf ears, as the Crystal Gems continued to walk, just as a white light started to consume the entire desert, along with him. He started to hear a voice call out to him that only got louder.

"Steven… Steven...?"

* * *

"Steven!" Steven opened his eyes, still covered in tears, wiping off the remains off of his face, as his vision started to clear up and saw that he was back on the beach. But what really caught him off guard was Connie standing in front of him gripping his shoulders and a face full of worry, with Rose's sword planted in the sand next to them, as well as Lion standing right next to Connie, carrying what looked like a black gem in his mouth.

"C-Connie, is it really you?" Steven cautiously asked.

"Of course it's me, Steven," she replied, as her face softened into a smile, reassuring him that this was the real Connie. It was enough for Steven to be relieved, but then another question came to mind.

"W-What happened to the Gem monster?"

"When it attacked you with that powder, Lion showed up just in time and allowed me to summon the sword out of his head and I used it to slice it from behind before Lion just sonic roared it to death. After Lion retrieved the gem, we found you wailing on the sand. I was too worried on what to do next."

Suddenly, Steven gave her a tight hug, causing her to blush heavily by this unexpected action.

"Oh Connie, it was terrible!" he shouted, before sobbing madly onto her shoulder. "I was in a desert all by myself and then, you, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl all turned against me and left me just like that!" Once he finished his explanation, Steven continued to sob on Connie's shoulder. "You said that you never wanted to see me again and the gems called ma a failure and that my mom shouldn't have given up for me and-"

"Steven!" she interrupted, prompting Steven to stop sobbing and focused his gaze at her. "What you experience didn't happen at all. Even if it did, there is no way I'm going to abandon you at all. I'll be at your side, no matter what."

"You will?"

"Promise."

"As a friend or is there more to us?" Steven asked, to Connie's confusion.

"What do you mean?"

Before she knew what has happening, Steven planted a quick kiss on her cheek, leaving Connie shocked, the blush on her face intensifying than usual. After a few seconds, she shook herself back to reality and planted a kiss of her own on Steven's cheek, before they looked at one another with bold confidence. The two closed the gap between each other again but this time it was for real, while Lion looked on. Their lips met for only a few seconds but it was enough for them to really feel together. No matter how bad the situation would get, they would be at each other's side, for better or for worse.

* * *

**A/N Hello again everyone. Sorry for the impromptu hiatus but with my first college semester coming to a close soon, my teachers start piling on the hard work. I just barely found time for this one. Essays a plenty for this poor writer but that's okay because I've never had an essay where I didn't get an A on. So on the 9th of December is when I'm officially done with my first semester and I'll be able to get back to the stories at hand. I'll have one month and it's gonna be a busy christmas for me.**

**During December, I'm going to be trying to finish "Return From Limbo" before returning to this. So expect at least 3 weeks before my return to SS.**

**Anyway, after the 9th, expect more on the way at a much faster rate. If only for one month.**

**Till next time, Sal out!**


	6. Moving On

_**Ch. 6: Moving On**_

_**Three years later…**_

It had been a long, excruciating time for Steven Universe since the Crystal Gems' role as guardians and sworn protectors of Earth had been taken over by him, as he slowly but surely grew into his role as the planet's sole savior; not only that, but he had physically and mentally matured in those three years, dealing with one Corrupted Gem after another, with Connie and Lion assisting him in his fight to protect Earth.

The last three years made it seem like Steven had moved on from the traumatic event that changed his whole world forever, but deep down, his sadness never truly left him, as he put on a smile to stop everyone from worrying about his well being. As far as Steven was concern, everyone thinking he was the same person would be best for them.

Today was like any other in Beach City during the Fall: another Corrupted Gem had arrived when everyone had least expected it; as usual, it was up to Steven to save the day, usually with a little bit of help as well. Steven had changed his look over the last three years, wearing a purple shirt, red fingerless gloves and a white skull cap, all having stars and respective black silhouettes on them as well, as a way of honoring the Crystal Gems. This time, he and Lion made their way to the boardwalk, passing by the many panicked citizens along the way, before finally arriving to the source of the problem: a giant Gem Slug, at least 20 feet tall and 80 feet long, with slime oozing out of its entire yellow body, with a single gemstone embedded onto the top of its head.

"Alright, Lion! Let's do this!" Steven proclaimed, with Lion growling in agreement, as the duo faced off against the Gem Slug, which roared furiously at the duo, before making the first strike with a giant headbutt; Steven and Lion barely dodged its attack, before quickly regrouping within a few seconds.

Undeterred by this, Steven summoned Amethyst's whip and whipped at the Gem Slug in retaliation, keeping the monster at bay, with Lion running around it and letting out a series of concussive roars, causing the Corrupted Gem to become disoriented in the process. Once it was clear that the Gem Slug was in no condition of attacking either Steven or Lion, the former summoned Amethyst's whip away and replaced it with Pearl's spear, before mounting on top of Lion, ready for the final strike.

"Take me on top of that slug, Lion!" Steven ordered, with Lion nodding his head, before he created a portal and both went into it; a few seconds later, another portal formed above the Gem Slug, with both Steven and Lion coming out of it, the former striking the Gem Slug on the head with the spear, before materializing one of Garnet's gauntlet to punch the spear down and through the slug's skull, fatally wounding it. After it let out one final shriek of pain, the Gem Slug disappeared into a cloud of dust, leaving just its gemstone where it once stood, with Lion picking it up with his mouth, while Steven got off of him.

"Good job, Lion. You're a good kitty," Steven congratulated him, petting his mane, while Lion simply purred in response to Steven's praise, before he allowed him to bubble up the gemstone and send it back to the Crystal Temple, just as Steven heard his stomach growling in hunger.

"Let's head to the Big Donut for a quick bite before we head back home and check up on the little ones," Steven suggested to Lion, as they head off to their destination.

* * *

The Big Donut hadn't changed that much in the last three years, still having its trademark giant donut for all to see, in addition to the snacks it had to offer, something that Steven planned to check out, as he and Lion arrived after a few minutes of walking.

"Alright Lion, just stay put right here. I'll be back when I'm done," Steven said to Lion, who let out a yawn, before Steven went inside the Big Donut to see Sadie and Lars, both still working there after three years, with just a slight change in appearances. "Hey Sadie, hey Lars."

"Hey Steven," Sadie greeted him in her usual friendly manner. "Here for the usual?"

"You know it," he happily replied.

"I'm surprise that eating the same snack everyday didn't change your girth that much," Lars teased Steven like always.

"The cash register who still has donut holes for ears shouldn't be knocking someone else's looks.," Steven countered back and for a moment, there was a long silence in the air, before both Steven and Lars laughed their heads off at their own jokes, just as Sadie handed Steven his donut.

"Thank you very much, Sadie. Anyway, how's college for you guys?" Steven asked.

"It's easier than I thought it'd be," Lars said confidently. "I heard all the horror stories about people dropping out, but when I got there, I had almost no trouble," Lars seemed proud of himself, as Sadie just rolled her eyes.

"Well of course you had no problem: You kept coming to me for help every day because you had problems understanding the material."

"Take it as a compliment: It means I appreciate that big brain of yours!" Lars joked, causing Sadie to blush.

"Oh, um, thanks Lars," Sadie accepted Lars' gratefulness.

"Well, I have to get going now. It was nice seeing you two," Steven then bid a farewell to her and Lars, with them doing the same thing, as he went outside and he and Lion headed back to the beach house. "How are those two STILL not dating?" Steven asked himself, as he began wolfing down on his donut.

* * *

The walk home to the beach house wasn't far for Steven and Lion, as it took them another few minutes to reach their destination; it remained relatively the same in the last three years, with the Crystal Temple still looming from the background. The only difference was that Greg had been living there with his son in the last three years, since the Crystal Gems were no longer around to look after Steven, with his van parked right outside. By this point, he was sort of use to Lion's window breaking habit, even if it forced him to withdraw whatever money he made from his car washing business to pay off the damages he made.

"Home sweet home," Steven muttered under his breath. "Let's go into the Crystal Temple and check up on the others."

But before either of them could enter the beach house, Greg unexpectedly popped out of nowhere, nearly startling Steven, before he calmed himself down enough to regain his composure and to hear what his dad had to say.

"Hey son!" Greg greeted Steven with enthusiasm. "How's everything going so far? I was thinking that you and I should spend time together like old times and I was wondering-"

"I love to, but I can't," Steven replied, cutting off Greg's speech, to his dad's surprise. "I have to check up on the Gem Pets inside the Crystal Temple."

"...Oh, alright...I understand," Greg respected his son's decision, though deep down, he was disappointed to hear his son's answer, as if his heart felt liked it got struck by an arrow, before allowing Steven and Lion to head inside the beach house. But then, his son turned around and faced him once more.

"Maybe we can hang out some other time when I'm free," said Steven, before he and Lion went inside, with Greg smiling in response to his son's assurance to him.

* * *

After using his gemstone to allow him entry into the Crystal Temple, Steven and Lion went into the Burning Room where all the bubbled up Corrupted Gems are, some having remained entrapped in their bubbles for quite a long time, but there were a few exception to this, as Steven heard the exciting squeals of three certain tiny Corrupted Gems coming right after him and Lion.

"Hey Centy! Hey Puffer! Hey Octo! It's good to see you three as well," Steven happily greeted them back. Then, he started to squawk like a seagull, causing Centy to spit acid in a nearby lava pool, before he put his hand over his mouth and made a farting noise, causing Puffer to blow directly at his face, nearly taking the white skullcap off; finally, he beat his stomach like a drum and Ocho shot three gem shards to a wall with its tentacles, nearly hitting the bullseye stuck to the wall.

"Looks like we still need to work on your throws, Octo," Steven remarked, before sighing with relief. "But at least none of them didn't hit the bubbled gems."

In the last three years, Steven began a rehabilitation program of sorts for the Corrupted Gems, in an attempt to reform them for the better. He already learned enough of his late mother's previous attempt to reform the Corrupted Gems and in a way, the program was to finish what Rose Quartz had started.

"Alright Centy, let's start off with you first," Steven said, beginning his program, while Lion laid down on the floor and snoozed off; Steven then proceeded to form a bird puppet with his hands and flapped it at Centy, who simply looked at Steven with confusion.

"Maybe this will do," Steven then flapped his arms around and walked around in a circle, but again, Centy remained still as a statue, causing Steven to sigh in disappointment.

'_What else can I do to get Centy to respond? I can't just make bird calls all the time. It'll do little to improve her,' _Steven continued to ponder for what seemed like forever, before it hit him. "Here goes nothing." He then proceeded to crow like a rooster and Centy spat acid out in another lava pool, pleasing Steven in the process.

"Why do you only respond to bird sounds?" Steven asked, not expecting an answer, before turning his attention to Puffer and Octo. "Now it's your guys turn."

* * *

It seemed like eons teaching Puffer and Octo different commands than the one they were normally used to, trying out every alternate methods that Steven could think of, no matter how ridiculous it may seem; it took him several minutes of making strange and funny noises before he found one that Puffer could respond to, by making rapid noises ohis n lips, while he made different banging noises by banging on his face in front of Octo to react, giving out a similar effect when he banged his stomach, though that recent attempt nearly earned him three shards to his face. Thankfully, though, his reflex allowed him to avoid them on time. Right now, Steven just wanted to take a break from training the Gem Pets.

"That'll be all for today," Steven told them, as he left the Burning Room and headed to what use to be Amethyst's room, before he noticed a clock on the pile of junk laying around; wondered what time it was, Steven walked out of the temple and saw a clock on the wall, reading the exact time on it.

"7:35?! The movie starts in 25 minutes!" Steven shouted in a panicked tone. "Oh man, I'm going to be late for my date with Connie! How will I make it there on time?! What will I even wear?! Why am I-"

Suddenly, Steven felt a hard grip on his shoulder, prompting him to turn his head around to face Lion, who let out a loud roar, ceasing any panicked behavior within Steven in an instant.

"Thanks Lion, I needed that," Steven showed his appreciation to Lion, who let go of his paw on his shoulder, before he headed into the bathroom for a quick shower. After getting himself clean up in a matter of few minutes, Steven put on a white polo shirt, khaki pants and black loafers, before hopping on top of Lion.

"Alright Lion, to Connie's house," he commanded, with Lion complying by forming a portal and hopping right into it, with Steven still on his back.

* * *

The sun was starting to settle down in Beach City, but for Connie, tonight was very important for her: she had a date with Steven; she had already gotten herself cleaned up nicely for their date, wearing a nice cyan blue dress and white sandals she had chosen for their date and both she and Steven were excitedly looking forward to the newest Dogcopter movie, Dogcopter 5: The Resurrection of Reckoning. They had waited for this movie to come out for months and they were going to see it tonight

'_I hope Steven hasn't forgotten about our date,' _Connie worriedly thought.

Just then, she saw something sparkling from a distance and as Connie glared at it for a better look, a portal showed up in its place in an instant, with Steven and Lion coming out of it, the latter stopping nearly inches away from her.

"Connie, I'm so sorry for being late!" Steven profusely apologized to her. "I lost track of time and I almost forgot about our date," he admitted.

"Actually Steven, we should make the movie fine with Lion here," Connie corrected him, as Steven sighed in relief upon hearing this, before she hopped onto Lion's back. "Anyway, let's not waste anymore time."

"Let's get to it then," Steven then turned his attention to Lion. "Take us to the movies, Lion."

Without hesitation, Lion formed a portal in front of him and with his two passengers on his back, he proceeded to leap into the portal, as they head to their next destination.

* * *

Within a matter of seconds, Steven, Connie and Lion arrived at the movie theater, before the latter put Steven and Connie down and wandered off from the area to who knows where.

"Where does Lion usually go?" Connie asked Steven. She was always curious on what Lion does whenever he went off on his own.

"Beats me," Steven replied with a shrug. "I never have time to follow him around all day."

Connie accepted Steven's answer for the moment, before they head up to the ticket booth to pay for their tickets. Once they got their tickets, the duo proceeded to help themselves to some snacks, before finding some seats inside, just in time for the previews to start, giving Connie some time to ask Steven before the movie began.

"How is everything going for you?"

"It's going good, Connie," Steven replied. "The rehabilitation program with Centy and Puffy are doing well, but Octo's another story; it still has a habit of launching gem shards to any walls close by and I almost got some to my face."

"It's good to know that you're making progress with them," said Connie, happy to know that Steven was doing his best with the Gem Pets, despite the program having been started up a few months ago. "But seriously, how are you really feeling?" she asked her boyfriend in a much serious tone. Steven took a deep breath before answering his girlfriend's question, knowing full well that lying wasn't going to get anywhere, especially with Connie around, but he really, really didn't want to talk about it.

"Do I have to say it when you already know the answer?"

"Steven, I don't blame you for missing them or that you don't want to talk about it," Connie assured him. "I miss them as well, but you can't pretend like nothing ever happened in front of everyone. You should be honest about it instead."

"I know," Steven admitted. "But losing the Crystal Gems was bad enough, but now that they're still not back, I'm having doubts they'll ever be back and I rather keep it to myself. Talking about that incident just makes me feel sad."

"It's alright if you want to keep something like that to yourself, but at least be willing to talk to me so I can at least help you feel better," Connie reasoned with her boyfriend.

"Okay," said Steven, before looking back at Connie. "I'll try it, for you."

"That's all I'm asking," Connie spoke with a smile, before she and Steven quiet down as the movie finally started, with the couple getting embroiled by the story playing right in front of them as time passed on and for a moment, it looked like their night will be a peaceful one. Sadly, the mood was ruined by a large tremor that suddenly shook the building very violently, prompting the duo to sigh in annoyance.

"The movie was just starting to get really good," Steven complained, as he and Connie quickly went out of the movie theater, just in time to meet up with Lion, apparently waiting for their arrival for some time. Steven then summoned his shield, while Lion allowed Connie to pull out Rose's sword from his head, before they both got on top of his back, with Lion forming a portal and all three went inside, heading to the source of the tremor.

* * *

What was suppose to be a peaceful night in Beach City was rudely interrupted by a series of large tremors, which only gotten much louder with each seconds; before long, out of the blue, came a terrifying Corrupted Gem: a four eyed elephant the size of King Kong, with two long, sharp tusks, a pair of large arms where its ears should be and a magenta hide that was as thick as a heavy coat of armor. The sight of this humongous Corrupted Gem left the citizens to run for their dear lives, while the Gem Elephant began to rampage its way around Beach City.

"Can't we go one week without something bad happening?!"

"This keeps getting crazier with each year!"

"I knew I should have moved to Empire City!"

But in the midst of the Gem Elephant's mayhem around the city, a portal formed out of nowhere, with Steven, Connie and Lion coming out through it, having arrived at the scene in the nick of time.

"I can't believe this behemoth is the one that's ruining our night," Steven commented with a snarky tone in his voice, before he threw his shield hard enough right at the Gem Elephant, prompting it to turn its attention to the trio; letting out a tremendous roar from its trunk, the Gem Elephant proceeded to charge at them with shocking speed.

"Split up!" Immediately, Steven, Connie and Lion evaded the Gem Elephant's charging attack on time. However, it quickly turned its attention to Steven and rushed right at him once more, before lifting itself up to crush him, forcing Steven to quickly swapped his shield for Garnet's gauntlets, barely holding its hoof up with much effort. Fortunately for him, Lion lets out its concussive roar at the Gem Elephant's side, forcing it to get off of Steven.

"Thanks, Lion," Steven appreciated his help, before he countered the Gem Elephant with a barrage of punches on its other hoof, as it reeled in pain from them.

"Hang on, Steven, I'm coming!" Connie yelled, slashing down another hoof in the process. Enraged by this, the Gem Elephant turned its attention to Connie and attempted to slam its fist on her, forcing Steven to swap Garnet's gauntlets for Amethyst's whip, quickly wrapping around the Gem Elephant's arm with it, preventing it from landing an attack on Connie. It struggle with all of its might to free itself from Amethyst's whip, before eventually pulling it upwards and forcing Steven to let it go.

"Whoa!" he shouted in surprise, before he noticed that Amethyst's whip is still wrapped around the Gem Elephant's arm; that's when an idea came to him. "Come over here and get me, ugly!" Steven then summoned up Pearl's spear at his other hand, just as the Gem Elephant used the same arm to slam his prey, allowing Steven to pin the whip down with Pearl's spear, preventing it from using its arm. He then switched to Garnet's gauntlets and proceeded to uppercut at its face, leaving the Gem Elephant in a daze.

"I got this!" Connie shouted, as she hopped onto Lion's back, who then proceeded to run up at a debris nearby the Gem Elephant, before leaping upwards at it, until they were close enough at the Gem Elephant's face, allowing Connie to sink her sword on its forehead, leaving the Gem Elephant to roar in immense pain and eventually, it disappeared in a cloud of dust, with only its gemstone taking its place.

"Thank goodness that's over," Steven said with relief, as he, Connie and Lion approached the gemstone, before he bubble it up and send it back to the Crystal Temple. "You're getting quite good with that sword," he remarked to Connie, causing her to blush.

"Thanks! I've been practicing and thanks to tennis, I got the hang of it faster than I thought I would," Connie replied. "Though my tennis instructor started to notice my form's been a little too aggressive as of late."

"How did you answer that?" Steven curiously asked.

"I just told him I was just losing myself to the game and I wanted to win," Connie replied.

"I guess that's the best answer I ever heard," Steven said, rubbing his head, before looking back at Connie with a sad look. "Sorry that our date at the movies was ruined because of this."

Before he knew it, Connie responded by kissing him on the cheek, causing Steven to blush even more.

"It's alright, Steven. Apology accepted," she assured him. "It was actually quite fun taking that Gem Elephant down, even if it did ruined the movie for us. Besides, we could do something else to make up for it."

"Well I have an idea," Steven happily suggested.

* * *

Steven, Connie and Lion are lounging around at the bedroom in the beach house, watching a movie marathon of Dogcopter films, enjoying them so much, that their fight with the Gem Elephant was nothing more than a forgotten memory. With just each other sitting side by side, Steven wrapped his arms around Connie, while she simply lay down on his lap, as the movie marathon continued to play on the TV.

'_I wish this would last forever,' _both Steven and Connie simultaneously thought.

But just after they made that thought, though, the last Dogcopter film had finally wrapped up, signalling the end of the marathon, much to their disappointment.

'_Aw man,' _Steven thought in dismay, while Connie looked outside and notice that it was already nighttime in Beach City.

"Looks like I have to get going now," she informed her boyfriend, as she planted another a kiss on his cheek. "Don't worry, I'll see you when I can and thanks for the date."

"Anytime, Connie," said Steven, before they waved each other goodbye, as she head outside and went off on her way to her home, leaving just Steven and Lion in the beach house.

"Looks like the night still ended well on a good note, Lion," Steven confided to his furry friend, only to met with Lion's stoic stare, causing Steven to sigh at this.

"Just this once, I wish that you could actually talk instead of making this into a one-sided conversation," after a few seconds, Steven shrugged it off and continued with his conversation with Lion. "Even though it's been three years, I remain hopeful that the Crystal Gems will come back." His statement prompted Lion to purr in response, before Steven went into his bed to get some sleep, with Lion preparing himself to do the same thing.

'If only the Crystal Gems were here to see my life now,' Steven thought, before he finally went to sleep.

* * *

**A/N If you haven't guessed yet, this story will not feature any homeworld gems and it's mainly due to the fact that Jasper would destroy Steven in a fight even with the gem weapons. He doesn't have enough battle experience to take on that kind of threat and win. The other reason is it's not what I want to do with this story.**

**Anyway good news: This story will update every day during Stevenbomb 3, with the last chapter going up Friday. All the chapters have been written and will be ready to go so look forward to it.**

**Till next time, Sal out!**


	7. Gem Dreams

_**Chapter 7: Gem Dreams**_

It was a peaceful night for Steven...or at least, it would be, if he hadn't felt something very off; instead of feeling the warm blanket covering his body and the soft pillows lying on his head, he felt something soft and fluffy underneath him, forcing himself to open his eyes and looked down to see...pink clouds? Shocked, Steven looked around at his new surroundings and it didn't took him too long to realize where he ended up.

'_How did I get into my mom's room?'_ he thought in surprise. 'Did I just sleepwalked my way inside the Crystal Temple and warped my way in here?'

"_Steven…" _Steven snapped back into reality, startled to hear a voice that was quite vague, but familiar at the same time; it had a stoic but calm tone to it.

"...Garnet, is that you?" He called out to the direction of where the voice came from.

"_Steven…" _Steven heard another familiar voice he hadn't heard for a long time; it was a bit loud, but also quite energetic.

"Amethyst?" was all Steven could muster from his mouth, feeling his fear crawling up in his spine like a snake.

"_It's alright, Steven. It's us..." _Another voice assured him with a motherly tone. By this point, Steven was starting to freak out, not expecting to hear Pearl's voice out of the blue.

"Oh no! It's deja vu all over again!"

"Relax Steven, there's nothing to be afraid of," Amethyst spoke up.

"It's really us, Steven," Garnet added.

"We're just glad to hear your voice again after three years," Pearl finished.

Steven looked around, trying his best to locate the Crystal Gems as hard as he could. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find them, with nothing but pink clouds floating all around him.

"Um, where are you guys?" he finally asked.

Suddenly, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl materialized themselves in front of Steven, giving the teenager a warm smile, leaving him in a total state of shock by their sudden appearances after three years of their absence. For a moment, he was speechless, unable to say anything back, before approaching the Crystal Gems and breaking down into tears of joy.

"GUYS! You have no idea how much it's good to see you here!" Steven happily cried out.

"Amethyst, Pearl and I also miss you as well, Steven," Garnet spoke back. "You did a wonderful job in your role as Gem Guardian of Earth."

"Wow, Steven, you gotten much bigger since the last time I saw you," Amethyst commented, as she looked at the now tall Steven.

"If Rose was here, she would have been so proud of you right now," Pearl praised Steven. "You did a wonderful job in protecting Beach City in our absence."

"Wait, you know everything?" Steven asked, surprised by Pearl's statement.

"Only a few things, as it took a lot out of us to see what's going on outside, but we're proud of all your work," Pearl explained.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it," Steven joyfully accepted this, before he noticed that Garnet was giving him a serious look. "What's wrong?"

"You need to stop using our gems," she sternly replied, much to Steven's shock.

"W-What do you mean?" Steven nervously demanded.

"Your constant usage of our gems is preventing us from fully regenerating," Pearl explained the situation to him. "Not to mention that your body is stealing our powers from them as well. It took all of our combined powers to finally communicate with you."

"Why did your gems got onto my body anyway?" Steven questioned the Crystal Gems.

"Beats us," Amethyst admitted with a shrug. "It wasn't intentional on our part and we're just as clueless about it as you are."

"It probably has something to do with the fact that you're human. Your powers are inconsistent and even we aren't aware of everything Rose herself could do," Garnet theorized.

All of these new information was giving Steven a hard time for him to process all of them in one moment, before he turned his attention to Garnet.

"How long will it take for you, Amethyst and Pearl to regenerate?"

"With the current pace... three weeks," she simply replied,

"_Three weeks?!" _Steven shouted in shock. "How am I supposed to protect Earth for three weeks without using your gems?!"

"Calm down, Stevie..." Amethyst began. "You'll be fine."

"How do you know that?!"

"Because we believe in you," Garnet answered, causing Steven to calm down.

"...I'll try," Steven replied. "I just want to see you guys again after so long."

"We all do, Steven," Garnet said with a smile.

"It'll happen," Amethyst added.

"Just hang on until then," Pearl finished.

Just then, the Crystal Gems noticed that something glowing from a distance is starting to envelop everything on sight. It was right then and there that they realized what was about to happen.

"Looks like our time in here is up," Garnet informed Steven.

"If we're going to disappear, the least we can do is this," Amethyst spoke, before she, Garnet and Pearl gave Steven one big hug and he hug them back in return, just as the white light finally enveloped them whole.

* * *

Steven opened his eyes and quickly shot up from his bed, his head covered with sweats and panting very heavily from the experience, before he looked around and notice that it was still night time in Beach City. He was still in shock from his brief encounter with the Crystal Gems in his dream, but at the same time, he also felt very happy, as he saw them again for the first time in years.

"I'm so glad I saw you guys again," Steven quietly said to himself, shedding tears of joy, before quickly wiping them off of his face. "Come on, Steven. Do it for Amethyst. I need to start manning up and protect Earth for the next three weeks until they return."

Once he made his vow, Steven returned to his bed and went back to sleep, though his mind continued to wander, keeping him from getting a peaceful sleep.

* * *

Morning finally came to Beach City, but for Steven, he had something else in mind other than breakfast; ever since he spoke with the Crystal Gems last night, he needed to find another way of protecting Earth for the next three weeks.

'_How do I protect earth without using their gems?' _Steven thought. _'My shield isn't strong enough to take out those Gem monsters in the past and Connie is the only one who uses the sword all the time.'_

He continued to think long and hard about this, until finally, it hit him in the end.

"Of course! I can use the Gem Pets! They can get me out of a jam when I needed it the most," Steven proclaimed, before the sudden stroke of this good idea started to fizzle out for him. "Even though I made some progress with the rehabilitation program, they might revert back to their old selves if I'm not careful."

Once more, he pondered on what to do next, pacing back and forth, until he picked up his cell phone and called up the only person who can help him.

"I need someone with a second opinion first before going through with this," he said to himself, just as he heard Connie's voice from the other line.

"Hey Steven," she greeted her boyfriend.

"Hey Connie," he greeted back. "I was wondering if using the reformed Corrupted Gems can substitute for summoning the Crystal Gems' weapons."

"Sorry to ask the obvious, but why?" she curiously asked. "Wouldn't it be better to just use the Gems' weapons?"

"The thing is, my constant usage of their weapons is what preventing them from regenerating," Steven explained to his girlfriend, much to her surprise.

"How do you know about this?" Connie demanded.

"The Crystal Gems talked to me in my dream," Steven's answer surprised his girlfriend even more. "It'll take them three weeks for them to fully regenerate, provided that I don't use their weapons at all."

"When you put it that way, I guess using the reformed Corrupted Gems isn't such a bad idea," Connie suggested.

"That's what worries me," said Steven. "If I'm not careful, they'll be back to their old selves."

"Don't worry, Steven. I'll come by and see what I can do to help."

"Thanks Connie," Steven spoke with gratitude, before he and Connie hung up.

* * *

Steven waited for what felt like an eternity, before he heard a knock on the door, much to his relief, as he approached the door and opened it, showing Connie waiting at the other side for him.

"I got here as fast as I could, Steven," Connie said to her boyfriend, before Steven let her into the beach house. "Anyway, where are the reformed Corrupted Gems?"

"I'm glad you asked," Steven replied, before he clapped his hands, allowing Connie to see three small Gem monsters in front of her. "Connie, meet Centy, Puffer and Octo. Centy, Puffer and Octo, meet Connie."

"It's nice to finally meet you three at last," Connie greeted them with affection, with the trio returning the affection back to her, before she looked back at Steven. "I was wondering why it was taking you so long to show them to me."

"Remember that weird burn I had a few months ago?" Connie nodded as Steven continued. "I didn't want that happening to you."

"Aw Steven, that's so sweet, but I'm pretty sure I would have been fine," Connie said, as she gave her boyfriend a quick hug.

"Whatever you do, do not make any squawking, farting or drum noises around them," Steven cautioned his girlfriend, who simply nodded her head, taking his warning very seriously.

"Did you by any chance come up with a name for them?" Connie asked her boyfriend.

"Actually, I do. I call them the Gem Pets."

"Gem Pets? That sounds quite cute."

"Before that, I was thinking about calling them Tiny Gems, Substitution Gems, Gem Pets and even Super Universe Almighty Gems."

"Yeah, I don't think any of those names would have fly by."

"At least I got a name for them," Steven simply said, before he started to worry. "As I mentioned before, I'm concern that if I'm not careful, they'll become feral once more and I'll have to bubble and retrain them again."

"I see," Connie understood what Steven was talking about. "Why not have Lion keep them in line?"

"I can't even keep Lion in line!" Steven countered. "He always destroys every window and places whenever he makes an appearance; he even destroyed a tourist taco's stand recently! Not to mention that my dad has to pay off for all the damages he creates, even counting off the many destruction he leaves."

"I think I see your point," said Connie.

"This "no using Gem Weapons for three weeks" policy is going to be difficult than I thought," Steven lamented. "I just wish they told me about that sooner."

"About that…" Connie began. "Care to give me more details about it?"

Steven took a deep breath and explained to her about his encounter with the Crystal Gems in his dream, how they got into a brief reunion and how they explained what he needed to do in order for them to fully regenerate, before finishing up the story with him waking up last night.

"Did they ever explained why their gems got stuck on your body?" Connie questioned Steven.

"They don't know much about it either," he admitted. "All I do know is that I have to protect Earth without their weapons for the next three weeks if I want to see the Gems again."

"What about your shield? You can use that without worrying of using their weapons," Connie noted.

In response to this, Steven summoned his shield and threw it to a wall nearby, before it bounced off the wall onto the ground and leaving a small dent from the impact.

"All it does is bounce around off of everything so it never felt like I was actually doing any damage with it," he complained, prompting Connie to get closer to Steven for comfort.

"Steven, you always found a way to improvise and took some of the Corrupted Gems down in the past."

"I'm trying to find one now, but I wonder if the risk is worth it."

"You won't know until you try it."

"...You're right, Connie. I'll have to take the chance, regardless of the outcome and right now, I need to get the Gem Pets ready for the future."

* * *

Having his mind made up, Steven, along with Connie, took the Gem Pets outside of the beach house, before he started pacing back and forth on the sands, giving the Gem Pets his most serious look on his face.

"Alright, Gem Pets, listen up! You three will be facing the most dangerous threats of your lives and right now, I need all of you to man up and prepare for the training of a lifetime!" Steven spoke like a drill sargeant, only to be met back by three blank stares from them, to his dismay.

"Aw man. I thought for sure that was going to motivate them."

"Why not use commands at them?" Connie suggested, before a thought occur to her. "Now that I mention it, is it alright if I try some as well?"

"Sure thing, Connie," Steven agreed, before making his way to Centy and squawking like a seagull, prompting Centy to spew acid in the sand, before he turned to Connie. "Now you try."

Connie nodded her head and used the same method at Centy. Unfortunately for her, Centy freaked out and spew acid at her instead, with Connie barely dodging the attack, as the acid laid right next to her.

"Centy, NO! You're not suppose to attack Connie at all!" Steven scolded Centy, before he picked Connie back up to her feet. "I'm so sorry about that."

"It's fine, Steven. At least I'm safe," she assured him, before looking at Puffer. "How about Puffer? It seems more safe than Centy."

Steven nodded his head and went up to Puffer, before covering his mouth with his hands and made some farting noises, causing Puffer to blow air upwards to the sky, before allowing Connie to use the same method on Puffer. Unfortunately, when she did used it, Puffer responded by blowing air at her face, causing her hair to poof up as well.

"Nice look back there," Steven remarked with amusement, irking Connie, before she calmed down and put her hair down in its place.

"At least it wasn't acid on my face," Connie commented, before she and Steven approached Octo, with the latter banging on his stomach like a drum, prompting Octo to shot some shards at a nearby rock. Likewise, Connie does the same thing, only for Octo to shoot some shards back at her in annoyance.

"WAH!" she screamed in horror, before Connie hid behind a nearby rock for safety, avoiding the shards in the process, before calling out to Steven behind it. "I don't think these Gem Pets like me at all."

"I don't get it," a dumbfounded Steven said, scratching his head in confusion. "They like you before when you met them and shower them with affection not so long ago." He then shrugged it off before speaking once more. "Regardless, we need to get them to trust you more."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to give up that easily," Connie insisted.

* * *

A few hours would passed by at the beach, with Steven and Connie continuing to train the Gem Pets in preparation for a future threat, but their efforts had little to no progress, whether the Gem Pets got distracted or continued to terrorize Connie with their attacks, despite using the correct commands. By now, the sun was starting to set and all Steven can do is sigh in disappointment by the results.

"This isn't working out at all," he muttered under his breath. "I'm starting to think that this isn't worth the effort."

But just as Steven is about to give up on the Gem Pets, he, Connie and the Gem Pets suddenly heard buzzing noises from a distance, causing the couple to turn to the direction of the noise and glare what appeared to be a dark cloud from the horizon. But then. the cloud moved at a much faster pace and headed straight towards the boardwalk, with people screaming in terror, before suddenly becoming eerily silence. Shortly afterwards, the same dark cloud then made its way towards Steven, Connie and the Gem Pets, to their shock, inching its way towards them, allowing the couple to get a better look; upon further inspection, they noticed that the dark cloud was actually a swarm containing dark blue wasps, with gems embedded on the base of their wings.

"I've never seen this many Corrupted Gems in one group before!" a shocked Steven shouted.

"This can't be good," Connie remarked, just as the Gem Wasps finally approached their targets.

"Everyone, gather around me!" Steven yelled, with Connie clinging onto Steven, while the Gem Pets huddle around him in fear, before he quickly summoned his bubble shield, protecting them from the barrage of Gem Wasps and their stingings.

"What do we do now?!" A panicked Connie asked Steven.

"I don't know!" Steven responded, before looking back at the Gem Pets. "I think this would be a good time to use the Gem Pets."

"Are you sure?" Connie asked with uncertainty.

"I don't have any other options," Steven replied. "The best we can do is hope for the best," was the answer he gave to Connie, silently praying that they could make it out of here unscathed.

* * *

**A/N Eh, I'm sure they can handle it.**

**So what did you guys think? Let me know in the review section and Stevenbomb: Fanfiction Edition is just beginning. Till next time, Sal out!**


	8. Swarm Warning

_**Ch. 8: Swarm Warning**_

Steven, along with Connie and the Gem Pets, continued to hide inside his bubble to protect themselves from the very persistent Gem Wasps; Steven's mind was racing to come up with a viable solution, knowing full well that if they ever found a way through his shield, AKA Popsicle City, GW is going to get a few more residents.

'_What do I do?! WHAT DO I DO?! __**WHAT DO I DO?!**__' _he frantically thought. 'If I lower my bubble, those Gem Wasps will get in and sting us! But if I don't, we can't get rid of them! Everyone in Beach City will be doom!'

The strain of keeping the bubble shield up was starting to put a heavy toll on Steven's body, leaving any chance of hope to become much slimmer with each second. But then, he, Connie and the Gem Pets heard a distinct roaring sound from a distance, getting much closer and louder towards them within seconds, as the Gem Wasps surrounding them were starting to get wiped out by pink blast waves, before revealing…

"Lion! You came!" Steven expressed his gratitude to the pink feline, who continued to let out another wave of concussive roar at the Gem Wasps, allowing Steven to finally lowered his bubble shield for all three to counterattack, as Connie quickly pulled Rose's sword from Lion's head and the Gem Pets prepared to use their own abilities to fend off the Gem Wasps.

"Alright everyone! Let's do this!" Steven boldly declared out loud, before all six began to attack the Gem Wasps surrounding them, each using their respective skills directly at them, whether it would be slashing, blowing, melting or even throwing a few shards at their direction and their skills seemed to be putting a big dent at the entire swarm.

'_Maybe we can pull this off after all,' _Steven thought with confidence, throwing his shield at the few Gem Wasps coming right at him.

But in spite of their impressive skills, the sheer number of Gem Wasps within the swarm was proving to be more than Steven and his friends can handle; no matter how many they have gotten rid of, a few more Gem Wasps would replace them, as if they had never died on the spot.

"There's too many of them!" Connie shouted, as she continued to slash another wave of Gem Wasps. "We can't keep this up!"

"I know!" Steven shouted back, blocking more Gem Wasps with his shield. "There has to be another way to get rid of-"

Suddenly, Steven felt a sharp pain on his neck, as he quickly slapped the source with his hand, before he suddenly felt his body becoming numb from head to toe.

"Ugh, I don't feel so good…" Steven moaned, as he started to feel a bit disoriented from the stinging.

"Hang on, Steven! I'm coming!" Connie then rushed to her boyfriend, gripping her sword very tightly, only to get stung on the back of her neck; before long, she dropped down to the ground, stiff as a statue and unable to move at all.

"Connie!" Steven shouted in horror.

Likewise, Lion was also getting stung in all directions from the Gem Wasps, but he shrugged them off of his body like they were nothing, continuing to use his concussive roar at them; but even he was no match for the Gem Wasps' stinging and soon, the effects were finally starting to kick in, and soon, Lion dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks, unable to even blink, with only Steven and the Gem Pets remaining to fight against the Gem Wasps.

"I...need to...save...everyone!" Due to the Gem Wasps' stinging effects within his body, Steven was starting to slow down, leaving him open for more attacks. The Gem Pets, meanwhile, continued to get attacked by the Gem Wasps, but no matter how many times they get stung, the effects weren't kicking in at all, due to, in part, their Gem biology.

It was during their fight with the Gem Wasps that Centy, as well as Puffer and Octo, sensed something was amiss in the air, as they looked around to see that Connie and Lion were unable to move at all, while Steven was barely able to move his own body; realizing the situation the trio were now in, the Gem Pets rushed towards to their new friends, ready to defend them from the Gem Wasps at all cost.

Centy gave out a series of chatter that only Puffer and Octo could understood and before long, Puffer let out the biggest blow it can from its mouth, causing several Gem Wasps to spread out in all direction, with Centy spitting out many acids at the few that managed to escape Puffer's attack, while Octo started to spun around like a merry-go-round, shooting several gem shards in all directions, hitting as much Gem Wasps as it could.

With the Gem Pets occupied with their fights against the Gem Wasps, Steven, by this point, was crawling with his already weakened arms, just barely making his way to Rose's sword that laid near Connie's frozen body.

"Almost...there!" Steven blurted out, but just as his hand finally grabbed Rose's sword, his body felt the Gem Wasps' stinging effect kicking in and soon, he became entirely motionless from head to toe.

'_I...can't move!' _Steven let out his final thoughts, before he finally became as stiff as a statue, just like Connie and Lion.

As Steven laid motionless next to Connie, the Gem Pets continued their fight with the Gem Wasps, desperately protecting their friends as much as they could, continuing to spit acid, blow air and shoot gem shards at the swarm, respectively; but their massive numbers made that tactic ineffective, as they replaced those that have fallen in battle with little effort; by now, the Gem Pets were starting to become tired from their prolonged use of their attacks.

But just when the situation was starting to become bleak for the Gem Pets, the Gem Wasps suddenly stopped their attacks, simply hovering above them instead, as if they were commanded to do so, before the swarm turned to the opposite direction and flew over to the ocean, disappearing as they had suddenly appeared, leaving the Gem Pets alone and unscathed, as well as several frozen bodies of Beach City's citizens on the boardwalk.

* * *

Time seemed to have frozen for an eternity, just as Steven was frozen up from the Gem Wasps' stinging, or at least, it felt like one. He didn't actually knew how much time had passed, but suddenly, he felt the effects from his body starting to wear off, as he had enough energy to finally get himself up on his feet; likewise, the same thing was happening to Connie and Lion, both getting themselves up onto their feet as well, before the trio looked around to see that everyone else in Beach City were doing the same thing. Although there didn't seem to be everlasting damages on them, the same can't be said to Steven, who broke down into tears upon realizing what had occurred.

"This is all my fault!" he cursed himself. "I was suppose to prevent something like this from happening! What kind of Guardian am I if I did a lousy job at it?!"

"Steven, there was no way you could have known something like this would-" Connie's attempt to cheer her boyfriend up was interrupted by the citizens approaching Steven and starting to voice their praises out to him.

"Way to go, Steven!"

"You're the man, man!"

"You show them who's boss!"

_'Were these people even watching?' _Connie thought as even she had to admit they didn't really do anything.

"About that…" Steven began, rubbing his neck with discomfort. "I actually had some help with…" as soon as he turned around, Steven trailed off when he noticed that Lion, as well as the Gem Pets, were long gone, leaving him unable to explain what really happened. Taking a deep breath, Steven turned to face everyone with a fake smile on his face.

"You know what, thank you very much!" he lied, hiding his true feelings to himself, as the citizens showered him with more praises, while Connie simply played along with Steven.

* * *

Steven, along with Connie, continued with the charade for all of Beach City to see, before they made their way back to the beach, far away from prying eyes and making sure no one else was following them, as they both sat down on the sands, with Steven dropping the act altogether.

"I can't believe I allowed that to happen!" he wallowed in despair. "How am we supposed to fight _that_?! The Gem Pets can't handle that many enemies by themselves!"

"Steven…" Connie began, putting her hand on his shoulder. "This isn't your fault. You did the best you can-" but once more, she was interrupted, this time by the ringing of her cell phone, as Connie sighed in irritation, before picking it up and answering it. "Hello?"

"Connie, are you alright?" Mrs. Maheswaran asked in a worried tone.

"I'm fine, mom. It's nothing to worry about," Connie assured her mother.

"Thank goodness, Connie. I thought something terrible happened to you," Mrs. Maheswaran spoke with relief, before her daughter spoke up once more.

"Mom, I was wondering if I can stay at Steven's place for the night, if it's fine by you," For a moment, there was a long pause from her mother, leaving Connie unsure of what her next words were going to be, before she finally spoke.

"...Why?" Mrs. Maheswaran asked.

"Steven's… a little depressed, so I wanted more time to help cheer him up," Connie responded, though another long silence began until she heard her mother sigh.

"...Alright, you can stay at his place for the night," Mrs. Maheswaran finally answered. "But I want you back home by tomorrow."

"Thanks, mom and I'm promise I will," Connie said with joy, before she and her mom said their goodbyes and hung up. Connie then turned to face Steven once more, still as down as ever, before she got close to him and tried to cheer her boyfriend up once again.

"Steven…" she started. " You've done the best you could to protect Beach City with all you got and you have done so for the last three years. Sure, not everything is going to turn out the way you had hope, but the point is, in the end, everyone is safe and you had the situation under control." Connie's speech was enough to brighten Steven up a little, as he faced his girlfriend with a small smile on his face.

"Thanks Connie, I appreciate that," Steven sincerely showed his gratitude to his girlfriend.

"You're welcome, Steven," Connie responded with a smile, before she and her boyfriend headed back to the beach house.

* * *

It only took them a few minutes of making their way back to the beach house, but upon their arrival, they noticed that Lion had already arrived before they did, sitting at the far corner of the house, with the Gem Pets huddled up with each other, much to their curiosity.

"How did you and the Gem Pets get back here before us?" Steven asked Lion. "Actually, how were you able to leave the pier unnoticed? More importantly, how are the Gem Pets?"

Lion, however, simply stared back, before letting out a yawn and dozing off in response.

'_I wish Lion could give me a different answer for once,' _Steven thought, before Greg opened the front door and let himself in.

"I can answer that, Steven," he said to his son. "Lion showed up with the Gem Pets through one of his portals and thankfully, didn't destroyed a window in the process. Anyway, I decided to keep the Gem Pets company and though they got feisty, I think I manage to get through to them."

"Thanks dad, I appreciate that," Steven thanked his dad. "Wait a minute..." he started to realize. "How did you manage to avoid getting stung from the Gem Wasps?"

"Actually, I didn't even knew what was going on in Beach City until now. I was sleeping inside my van the whole time," Greg explained, before he became concerned. "Anyway, are you alright?"

Suddenly, Steven started to cry over his shoulder, leaving Greg surprised by his son's reaction.

"I'm a failure, dad! I got everyone stung and frozen like statues and I couldn't prevent that from happening!"

"There, there, Steven. It's alright," Greg then hugged his son in order to calm him down. "You're no failure at all. You did the best you can to protect Beach City."

Soon, Connie joined in with Greg in hugging Steven, as they allowed him to cry for as long as he can.

* * *

Almost an hour had passed and it was nearly nighttime at Beach City; Greg was in his van to get some rest, while Steven and Connie were alone in the beach house, watching TV on the wooden floor, the former having finally stopped crying, but still disappointed, as he sighed sadly.

"What will Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl think of me if they had saw me fighting against the Gem Wasps like that?" Steven wondered out loud.

"Honestly, I don't know," Connie admitted. "But I do think they would assured you that you did your best. Still, no one got hurt in the end."

"You're right, Connie," Steven agreed. "And thanks for being here with me. I really needed that."

"No problem, Steven and thanks for being here with me for the last three years," Connie reciprocated.

Eventually, the two were feeling uncomfortable from sitting on the wooden floor for a long time, prompting them to sat on Steven's bed and continued to watch TV from there in comfort. Eventually, after a long while, the two started to feel tired and eventually fell to sleep, leaning together for support, but happy to be with one another.

* * *

"I better go up in the beach house and see how they're doing," Greg said to himself, as he exited out of the van and headed to the beach house, before he quietly opened it and started to tiptoe his way inside, eventually making his way upstairs and saw Steven and Connie leaning together in their sleep. The sight was enough to melt Greg's heart on the spot.

"Aw, that's very cute," he remarked, before something else kicked in. "But at the same time, it's also a bit uncomfortable."

Greg then quietly walked away from Steven's bedroom, before he felt something hard from behind, prompting him to turn around and saw Lion staring at him, nearly causing Greg to scream in terror with his stoic expression, before he calmed himself long enough to prevent himself from screaming out loud.

"Uh, I guess you caught me, didn't you?" Greg awkwardly asked, only for Lion to continue to stare at him, much to his discomfort; a few more seconds of staring later, he took a deep breath and spoke to Lion once more. "Well, um, good night to you."

Greg hurriedly headed out of his son's bedroom and out of the beach house and quickly went back to his van to try and get some sleep, pretending that he never had that awkward meeting with Lion.

* * *

**A/N Goodnight to the heroes.**

**Okay two things: Steven's shield. In the first episode, the only time Steven used the shield offensively, it bounced off of every single wall and the only thing it hurt was a TV. That doesn't ring towards damage when the wood of the wall doesn't look damaged at all. **

**Next Steven with all the gems VS Jasper. I'm sorry but the only way Steven could conceivably beat a 6000+ year old Gem warrior that gave Garnet a run for her money is with Lapis' help but the only help she gives in the whole two parter was fusing with Jasper to put them in the sea (which was the dumbest ending they could have done as Lapis was 10 feet from the ocean and could've destroyed Jasper with her pinkie finger). And the problem with that is Lapis doesn't do anything to help Steven until the end and her solution is dumb. Outside of that, Steven just doesn't have the battle experience to take on Jasper and win.**

**Anyway that's just my thoughts on the shield and why I don't think Steven could win against Jasper.**

**Till next time, Sal out!**


	9. Reconnect

_**Ch. 9: Reconnect**_

**20 days till the Gems revive…**

It was finally morning in Beach City, as the sun's ray made its way to the beach house, seeping out through the window blinds and eventually landing onto Steven's face, causing him to get up from his bed, yawning and stretching his arms out, before spotting Lion sleeping right next to his bed.

"Hey Lion, I didn't know you want to keep me and Connie company," he remarked, causing Lion to briefly wake up and glared at Steven with annoyance, as if he threatened retaliation from being woken up from his slumber, much to Steven's surprise.

"Um...I'll leave you be then," he nervously said, as Steven backed away from Lion and out of his bedroom, quickly making his way down into the kitchen. 'Note to self: never interrupt Lion's sleep. EVER,' Once he gave himself a mental note to remind himself in the future, he approached the fridge and looked around inside.

"Guess I should make breakfast for Connie and myself," Steven said to himself. "Though I should be careful what Connie wants on her breakfast."

Steven picked out a few items from the fridge, then closed it and headed over to the cupboard and looked around at the few kitchen utensils to use for their breakfast, when he heard the sound of the front door opening, causing him to turn around and saw his dad coming inside.

"Good morning, Steven," Greg greeted his son.

"Good morning, dad," Steven greeted back. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"Sure, son," Greg happily accepted his son's offer, taking a seat for himself at the table. "I could use some on an empty stomach." While his son began to cook at the stove, it was then that something clicked in Greg's head. "Steven, do you want to hang out together like old times?" Greg's question caused Steven to pause for a moment and think of his dad's offer.

_'If we hung out together and something bad happens, it'll be completely pointless. However, I do need a break after what happened. Still, those Gem Wasps can return anytime and other than the Gem Pets, I don't have any other useful idea to back me up.'_ Soon, panic filled up Steven's mind and even expressed itself on his face, worried of the possible scenarios that may or may not happen.

"Steven, are you alright?" Greg voiced his concern, noticing his son's panicked look on his face, as Steven snapped back into reality upon hearing his dad's voice.

But before he could even answered back, Steven spotted Connie coming down from his bedroom, letting out a big yawn, before she made her way into the kitchen and saw both her boyfriend and Greg in front of her.

"Hey Steven, hey Mr. Universe."

"Hey Connie," both Steven and Greg simultaneously greeted her back.

"How are you feeling now, Steven?" asked Connie.

"I'm feeling much better now. In fact, I'm so happy that I got over what happened yesterday," Steven lied, giving her a big smile on his face, just grateful that Connie didn't witnessed him freaking out seconds ago.

"If you say so, Steven," Connie accepted his answer, as she took a seat at the table and sat right next to Greg, who looked at his son suspiciously for a moment, before shrugging it off.

'Maybe it's best if I didn't bring up Steven's freakout to Connie. It'll just make the situation even worse.'

"I hope you two love eggs," Steven announced, having finally finished his cooking, as he handed Connie and Greg two plates of them on the table, before putting one for himself and taking a seat right next to them and soon, the trio began munching on their meals.

"So Steven…" Greg began, taking a piece of his egg. "Do you still want to hang out with your old man?"

Steven briefly stopped for a moment, looking at his dad, before looking back at Connie. It didn't took him too long to realize what his next course of action will be.

"Sure, dad. I would love to," Steven replied, even if it would make him and Connie happy for the moment, before the trio resume with their breakfast.

* * *

After finishing up their breakfast, Connie informed both Steven and Greg that her mother was calling her on the phone to come back home as soon as possible, even nagging her the moment she woke up in the morning.

"Sorry I had to leave on such short notice," she apologized to them.

"It's alright, Connie. I understand," Steven assured his girlfriend.

"Don't worry about it, Connie. You're welcome here anytime," Greg added.

"Thank you," said Connie, before she, Steven and Greg bid farewell to one another, as she headed back to her place, leaving just Steven, Greg, Lion and the Gem Pets at the beach house by themselves.

"What do you have in mind for today?" Steven asked, breaking the silence between them. Greg pondered for a moment, before an idea came to him.

"We should check out the movies tonight and see what's worth checking out!"

"What kind of movie, dad?" Steven asked.

"I heard about this movie called _The Yellow Tent_," Greg replied. "It's suppose to be a wild adventure film of sorts and in fact, it just came out today. What do you say?"

Steven pondered long and hard for a few ten seconds, before looking back at his dad.

"Yeah dad, that sounds like fun," he answered, to Greg's joy.

* * *

The walk to the movie theatre took Steven and Greg a bit longer, due to living a bit far from where they were at, but it was worth the walk, especially for Greg, since it'll be just the two of them watching a movie together, before they spotted the poster of the film they're planning to watch.

"It looks interesting enough," Steven commented, taking a quick look at the poster.

"I bet it'll be more fun once we watched it," Greg remarked and as he and his son headed to the ticket booth, neither of them didn't paid attention to the insanely small tagline that might as well be in fine print: _"The family trip that went all wrong"_.

Once they got their tickets, Steven and Greg went inside and took some seats and while they wait for the movie to begin, the two took the time for some casual chat with each other.

"Thanks for taking me here," Steven thanked his dad.

"No problem, Steven. Anything to make you feel happy," Greg insisted.

"I really needed it," Steven simply said, before he and Greg noticed the movie was starting to play, prompting them to be quiet as the movie began. Initially, it started off rather slow, but eventually, the pacing began to pick up speed and soon, the movie was becoming more enjoyable.

_'Wow! This looks so good!'_ Steven excitedly thought, being engrossed by the experience, as _The Yellow Tent_ looked like it was living up to its adventurous reputation and for a while, it appeared to stay that way...until third way into the film, when the tone took a sudden dark change, to the duo's shock; all of a sudden, one of the main character took out a gun and gunned down a nearby monster at the spot.

"What the-?" was all Steven could quietly said to himself.

"That wasn't suppose to happen," Greg muttered under his breath.

Despite the dark shift the movie took, the two continued to watch and see where it went from there, until they finally made it to the film's ending scene; the main character, who was no more than twelve years old, looked on in horror as his companions, who had been traveling with him up until this point, met their end from a monstrous looking crab. The crab killed the first companion, a tall, shade wearing figure, with its giant pincer, then smashed another, a short and stocky person with messy hair, to a rocky crevice in a bloody pulp and crushed the last companion, a tall but lean individual, slowly and painfully with its other pincer, before getting killed itself after trying to attack the main protagonist from a falling stalactite, ending with the boy mourning for his fallen companions.

Needless to say, Steven started to tear up from watching this and all of his old wounds were beginning to open up.

_'This might not have been such a good idea after all,'_ Greg worriedly thought, but when he turned around to face Steven, he was long gone. Shocked and concerned, Greg quickly got up from his seat and went outside of the movie theatre, looking for his son.

"Steven, where are you?!" Fortunately for him, Greg could hear what sounded like crying from around the corner and he cautiously approached his way to the source, eventually locating his son, his back turned away from him.

"Steven...are you alright?" Steven didn't answered and continued to wail in sadness, prompting Greg to pull him into a big hug and allowed his son to cry on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry back there. I honestly had no idea how it was going to turn out."

"I know you never meant to do it on purpose…" Steven began, still a bit teary. "But that was just too much for me to handle."

"Lets just go home then," said Greg, with Steven nodding his head in agreement, as they began the long walk back home. Greg, though, felt guilty for what he did back there; he wanted to make his son happy, not make him miserable.

* * *

**16 days till the Gems revive…**

It was four days since the incident at the movie theatre, but Greg still felt guilty for playing a role in it, as he sat inside his van, trying to figure out a way to make up for it.

_'What can I do to fix this?'_ he thought, pondering very hard for a solution that can help him out. After what felt like eons, it finally came to him. _'I think I got it! It might not be much, but it's better than nothing!'_

Having founded what he needed, Greg immediately got out of his van and went inside the beach house, just as Steven was starting to wake up from his sleep.

"Hey Steven, how about we chow down at Fish Stew Pizza this afternoon?" Greg happily suggested.

As if it had a mind of its own, Steven's stomach growled in hunger, no doubt craving to have its fillings.

"Well...I suppose so," Steven replied, an answer that left Greg quite enthusiastic, as he'll have another chance of spending time together with his son.

* * *

The afternoon arrived at Beach City, as Steven and Greg went into Fish Stew Pizza, still run by the Pizza family after three years, as the two are greeted by Kiki, who took them to a nearby table and seated them, before pulling out a notepad from her apron.

"What kind of topping would you two be having on your pizza?" she gently asked.

"How about some chocolate chips, whipped cream and jelly jam?" Steven suggested.

"I'll just stick with pepperoni, sausages and olives, thank you very much," Greg added.

"Chocolate chips, whipped cream, jelly jam, pepperoni, sausages and olives," Kiki wrote them down on her notepad, despite being weirded out by Steven's choice of toppings. "Alright. Your pizza should be here when it's finished." She turned around and headed into the kitchen, leaving just Steven and Greg by themselves at the table.

"Steven…" Greg began, attempting to start a conversation with his son. "Are you feeling better now from that movie? I mean, it's amazing how sometimes a movie can recreate a scene like that without even trying."

"Excuse me?" Steven asked, causing Greg to realize what he just said.

"What I meant to say is that they wouldn't have known about the Gems..I mean, it was just a bizarre coincidence, especially those actors...not that anyone would have notice it or anything…"

"Dad, maybe it's best if we don't bring it up at all," Steven suggested, not wanting the awkwardness in the air to get much bigger between him and his dad than it already was.

"Order up!" Both Steven and Greg turned around and saw Kiki coming by with their pizza, not noticing a discarded cup on the floor was in her way, until she was an inch closer to it, as she stepped on it and caused her to lose her balance. "WHOA!" Kiki shouted, before the pizza landed right on top of Greg's head; the commotion didn't went unnoticed, though, as Kofi and Nanafua went out of the kitchen to see what was going on.

"No free pizza!" Kofi bluntly told the pizza-covered Greg, just as Kiki got up to her feet and saw the pizza on top of Greg's head.

"I'm so sorry for that!" Kiki apologized.

"We'll make another batch of your order, free of charge," Nanafue informed Steven and Greg, before she, Kiki and Kofi went back into the kitchen to cook another pizza.

'That was unexpected,' a dismayed Greg thought, with Steven staring at the pizza still on top of his dad's head. Then, he started to snicker at the sight and soon, Greg started to chuckle with his son over his misfortune, no longer caring about the pizza on top of his head and even took a bite out of it.

"Not bad," Greg spoke with a smile.

* * *

**12 days till the Gems revive…**

"You want to do what?" Steven asked in disbelief.

"You heard me, Steven. We should go out and play some mini golf," Greg replied as they arrived at the mini golf course.

"I don't know…" Steven began, rubbing his head. "I feel too old for it."

"Nonsense, Steven," Greg dismissed his son's reasoning. "No one is too old for mini golf!" This prompted Steven to ponder a bit hard about this, before finally answering his dad.

"You know what, I'm in." Steven said as they went in and came out holding up their colorful plastic golf putters and golf balls, before heading to the first mini golf course nearby. Steven played first, as he swung his golf ball, but only succeeded in moving the ball slightly.

"Aw man," Steven said in disappointment. "I guess this is what I get for not playing this game as much."

"If it'll make you feel better, I haven't played much of it either," Greg attempted to cheer his son up. "Here, let me show you."

Greg stepped up and put the ball on the course, before he swung it with his golf club. Unfortunately for him, he swung too hard, as the golf ball flew directly at the obstacle, bounced back at it and landed squarely on Greg's face, before bouncing all the way back up in the air, leaving a black eye in the process.

"I think I swung too hard back there," Greg mumbled, disoriented from the pain on his face, as Steven approached him and picked him up on his feet.

"Look on the bright side, dad, at you least made the golf ball move," Steven jokingly stated.

'I need to remind myself not to do that again,' Greg gave himself a mental note, just as the golf ball finally landed into the hole.

"Looks like you haven't lost your touch after all," Steven happily said.

"More like a lucky shot," Greg said otherwise and the two laughed their heads off about it. "But seriously, I probably won't swing for the fences like that again," he added, before the two resumed playing at the mini golf course.

* * *

**8 days till the Gems revive…**

The last thing Steven expected to do today was for him, his dad and every citizen in Beach City to attend a speech being held by Mayor Bill Dewey. Whatever it was, it was really important for him and the least thing everyone should do is to listen to what he had to say, as the mayor made his way to the microphone.

"Last year, Beach City had made Lion its official mascot and thanks to Steven's continued contribution for protecting Beach City for the last three years, I present everyone...with this!"

Mayor Bill Dewey, along with his bodyguards, approached the veil and pulled it down, revealing a statue of Lion, made entirely out of glass, for all the spectators to see, before the mayor spoke up once more.

"We'll eventually have a real statue once we required enough funds through donations. Until then, feast your eyes on this glass statue."

"I can't believe Beach City went this far to praise me and Lion like that," Steven whispered to his dad.

"You've been protecting Beach City for three years. I think you earn it," Greg whispered back.

"Do I even want this kind of honor?"

Before Greg could answered, he felt something breathing behind him, prompting him and Steven to turn around and saw Lion behind them, shocking the former from his unannounced presence, before regaining his composure after a few minutes and sighed with relief.

"I'm just glad he didn't destroyed anything on his way here for once," Greg happily said.

Lion, though, ignored Greg's remark and went up to Steven, motioning him with his head to come with him for something important.

"Alright Lion, I'm on it," Steven then mounted himself onto Lion's back, as Lion formed a portal in front of them and they entered inside, disappearing in the process. A few seconds later, a portal formed in front of the glass statue of Lion, as the real Lion went out and destroyed it into several shards and entering into another portal shortly afterwards, as everyone looked on in shock.

"I knew that was too good to be true," Greg moaned in disbelief, while the citizens chattered what they just witnessed.

"I wonder what that was about."

"I don't think he liked it."

"Maybe the statue shouldn't have been made with glass to begin with."

For his part, all Mayor Bill Dewey could do was stare at the shards that use to be the Lion glass statue, before he fell down onto his knees and burst into tears, as all the funds he had saved up where for nothing.

* * *

**4 days till the Gems revive…**

It was a breezy afternoon at the beach house, with Greg sitting near his van, strumming up his guitar, before playing the string for the right tune, just to be certain he strummed the guitar right.

"It's a bit off," he muttered, before Steven got out of the beach house with his ukulele on his arms and sat right next to his dad, before letting out a sigh. "Are you alright, Steven?"

"I wish I was," he answered. "I still couldn't locate the Gem Wasps and I found myself in another dead end four days ago. Even with Lion's sense of smell, he still couldn't pick up their scents and I'm worried that they'll show up any minute now and I wouldn't know about it until it's too late."

Greg continued to listen to his son, as he strummed up his guitar once more, before playing the strings, with the tone coming off quite relaxed. Steven, hearing this, decided to strum up his ukulele as well, before playing a similar relax tone like his dad's guitar. Before long, he and his dad began to play with the same relax tone, causing Steven to loosen up from his worries and get caught up in the soothing melody; soon, they were playing a very beautiful tune that broke the unnerving silence in the air, seemingly lasting for an eternity, before finally finishing it up.

"How are you feeling now?" asked Greg.

"I'll admit, I'm not one hundred percent better, but I'm feeling much calmer now than I was," Steven replied.

"Is something else bothering you?" Greg questioned his son.

"...I'm still waiting for the Crystal Gems to return, but it feels like forever," Steven confessed. "I'm the reason why they didn't return much sooner."

"Did they actually meant it?"

"No, but it sounded like they were. It felt too real and their serious looks on their faces is why I choose to listen to them and wait for them to return."

"Don't worry, Steven. I'm sure they'll be proud of you for protecting Beach City and Earth for the last three years," Greg comforted his son, as Steven looked at his dad with a smile.

"Thanks dad for listening and thanks being there with me when I needed it the most."

Touched by his son's words, as well as seeing how happy he was after three years, Greg pulled his son into a hug and cried tears of joy and Steven, in turn, hugged his dad back, as well as smiling in response.

* * *

**The last day…**

It was a busy day at It's-A-Carwash and fortunately for Greg, he got assistance in the form of his son, as Steven washed every windshield that passed by him and he couldn't be any happier about it; it was the day that the Crystal Gems will finally returned after three years of absence and he looked forward to it when that happened. But while Steven happily awaited for their return, Greg, on other hand, thought of something he hadn't thought of until now, as he spoke to his son with concern.

"I understand you're happy that this is the day they'll be back, but aren't you worried that the Crystal Gems will rip themselves out of your body?"

"As long as they regenerate, I could care less," Steven happily replied.

"That's what worries me. Who knows how the Gems will regenerate when that happens," Greg said to his son. "Then again, I don't understand much about Gem magic."

"I'll admit, I don't know much about it either. Still, at least I can get rid of these gloves and skullcap for good," Steven stated.

"Sorry to ask the obvious, but why?"

"I'm getting sick and tired of the 'joining in a rock band' jokes and these gloves and skullcaps are quite itchy."

"Oh man, I still remember that like it was yesterday," Greg spoke with nostalgic. "Besides, I still think you should follow in my footstep as a musician."

"That'll be the day," Steven jokingly said, before he and his dad continued with their work. But then, Steven's mind started to drift off for a bit. 'After three years, the Crystal Gems will finally be back!'

"You're still thinking about them, are you, Steven?" Greg asked his son, snapping him back to reality.

"It was that obvious, isn't it?"

"...I just wanted to make sure you're alright, that's all," Greg insisted, despite a moment of hesitation.

"I will once the Gems will return."

"Do you even know when the Gems will return?"

"I was told to wait in three weeks. They never mentioned anything else specific about time."

"I wonder if there will be room for error when they get back," Greg pondered.

"I don't know, dad. We'll just have to wait for now," For a moment, there was a long silence between them, until Greg finally spoke.

"Where's Connie? I haven't seen her for a while."

"She's with Lion and the Gem Pets searching for the Gem Wasps," Steven answered.

"Are you sure they should be out there by themselves?" asked a worried Greg.

"Don't worry, they can take care of themselves," Steven insisted. "If they found anything, they'll let me know."

"If you say so," Greg accepted this. "I'm still worried for them though."

"I'm worried about them as well, dad," Steven admitted, before he became serious. "But I won't hold back if the whole world is in danger."

"You've done a good job on protecting the world for the last three years," Greg commented.

"Which is why I can't let this one slide," said Steven. "When I get another chance of facing those Gem Wasps once again, I'll be ready."

It was at this moment that a portal formed out of the blue, as Lion, along with Connie and the Gem Pets, burst through the carwash front window, covering the latters with several glass shards, as they approached Steven and Greg.

"Lion, you need to stop doing that," Connie chastised Lion, wiping off the shards off of her, Centy, Puffer and Octo.

"Aw man, I just got that cleaned up," Greg spoke with dismay that Lion destroyed another window again.

"Connie, what's wrong?" asked Steven.

"We've finally found the Gem Wasps!" Connie's answer left Steven stunned, before he shook his head and faced his girlfriend.

"Where are they?" he demanded, as he grabbed the Gem Pets and threw them into Lion's mane to keep them from falling off.

"There's no time to explain! We need to get there right now!"

Steven nodded his head, before facing his dad and hugged him, prompting Greg to hug his son back as well.

"I have to get going now, dad."

"Be careful out there, Steven and stay safe."

"I will, dad. I will," Steven assured him, before he let go of his hug and mounted on top of Lion, who then proceeded to form a portal in front of him and Connie, before all three went in, with the portal disappearing behind them, heading into their destination and preparing themselves for another rematch with the Gem Wasps.

* * *

**A/N Break out the insect repellent. How much? ALL of it!**

**Hope you all are enjoying Stevenbomb, both on TV and here as well. Thank you to all the supporters that are reading this story.**

**Till next time, Sal out!**


	10. Hurricane Wasp

**Chapter 10: Hurricane Wasp**

Within a matter of seconds, Steven, Connie and Lion arrived at their destination, with Lion bursting out through another window as usual, covering the couple with glass shards in the process.

"Lion, what is with you and breaking windows?" asked an annoyed Steven, even though Lion remained unresponsive to his question, as he wiped off the glass shards from his head and arms.

"Forget about that, Steven…" Connie began, also wiping off the glass shards from herself. "We're here."

Steven looked around and realized that he is in the middle of what appeared to be a busy city, with buildings that towered over one another and yet, there weren't as many people around as Steven had expected; what really surprised him, however, was that the signs and letters were in a different language altogether, making it hard for Steven to know where exactly they are.

"Connie, where did Lion took us?" he asked his girlfriend.

"Where in Koyto, the capital city of Japan," Connie replied.

"**JAPAN?!"** Steven was shocked to hear Connie's answer. "Why did Lion teleported us to Japan?!"

"That's because it's where we found the Gem Wasps," Connie further explained.

"How did you know they were in Japan?"

"Watch the news," Connie stated matter-of-factly.

Suddenly, Lion immediately took off with Steven and Connie onboard, before stopping in his tracks and looked around the corner, allowing the couple to spot many citizens on the pavement and sidewalks, all frozen like statues; there was no doubt that the Gem Wasps were here and the sight served as a reminder for Steven of his last encounter with them.

"Alright, listen up…" Steven began his explanation. "We need to be on guard when we're looking for the Gem Wasps." Both Connie and Lion nodded, having understood his reasons, before they heard what appeared to be rumbling noises from a distance. "W-Where did that come from?!" a startled Steven nervously asked out loud.

"Judging from that noise, I say it sounds like an engine coming from a tank," Connie deduced, before more rumbling noises turned up. "In fact, it's behind us!"

Sure enough, a few dozen tanks, as well as several dozen military vehicles, started to show up right behind them, no doubt that they were searching for the Gem Wasps responsible for attacking Koyto. The noises they made, though, didn't go unnoticed and a swarm of Gem Wasps turned up, ready to face off against the military as well. Seeing the sight was enough for Steven to quickly summon up his bubble shield around him, Connie and Lion for protection.

"Lion, we need to get out of the way!" Steven commanded.

Lion growled in response, before he, Steven and Connie quickly went to an alleyway, getting out of the military's path, as all the trio can do is watch in hiding, witnessing the military stopping in their tracks, piling their forces all over the street and aiming their rifles high up, while the tanks pointed their cannons upward in the sky as well; soon, they began their assaults, their tanks and soldiers shooting at the Gem Wasps with as much force as they had on them, covering the sky with a cloud of smoke. Unfortunately, they were ineffective against the Gem Wasps, as they buzzed in anger and retaliated by charging right at the now panicked soldiers, stinging every one of them by the thousands.

"Oh man, they're getting creamed! We gotta do something!" Steven shouted, as he got off of Lion to get the Gem Pets; jumping into Lion's mane, Steven appeared in a bright pink field next to a tree on a hill. With no air to breathe, Steven held his breath, as he looked around for the Gem Pets. However, after searching for them in the wave of grassy hills, they were nowhere to be found.

'_Did they wander off? Oh, this is bad!' _Steven thought, before he realized he was running out of air and had to go back out, as Steven popped his head out of Lion's mane with a gasp.

"Did you find them, Steven?" asked Connie.

"No they must have wandered off. I'm going to go look again-wait, do you hear something?"

Just then, Steven, Connie and Lion heard what sounded like another buzzing noise, much louder than the ones coming from the Gem Wasps, prompting the trio to look upward in the skyline and are shocked by what they were staring at: hovering above them was the biggest Corrupted Gem they have ever seen, it's body covered in a multitude of colors, its wings spanned larger than its small predecessors and what appeared to be a gemstone resting on the base of its wings. There was no doubt that this must be their queen, as it was giving out some sort of commands for the Gem Wasps to attack the remaining soldiers on the ground.

"That's the biggest monster I have ever seen!" Steven shouted in astonishment.

"How are we supposed to take down something like _that?!_" Connie yelled, still staring at the Wasp Queen in disbelief.

"I'm not so sure," Steven admitted, before he became serious. "But we can't let it get away. We need to take it out here without the Gem Pets, because we don't have time to look for them!"

"You're right, Steven," Connie agreed, having rid herself of the shock, before she spotted a tall building where the Wasp Queen is nearby. "We can teleport our way up to that building and get on top of it from there."

"Good idea, Connie," Steven then looked back at Lion. "Alright Lion, take us up to that tall building!"

Lion responded by scratching on the bubble still covering him, Steven and Connie, prompting them to realize the obvious.

"Whoops," Steven sheepishly commented, before clapping his hands together, causing the bubble shield to disappear. "Alright Lion, take us up to that tall building."

This time, Lion nodded his head and dashed towards the tall building, forming a portal right in front of him, before he, Steven and Connie went inside of it; a few seconds later, another portal formed at the top of the tall building, with the trio coming right out of it, before Lion made the biggest leap he could make, miraculously landing on top of the Wasp Queen's back.

But the moment they got on top of the Wasp Queen's back, however, the Gem Wasps quickly took notice of their presence and quickly rushed right at them, forcing Steven to summon his bubble shield, as it surrounded the trio at the nick of time from the Gem Wasps' stingings, before he, Connie and Lion found themselves rolling off of the Wasp Queen's back, landing on top of one of the tanks down below, before bouncing off of it and rolling back onto the pavement.

The military, meanwhile, continued to attack the Gem Wasps and their queen, with both the soldiers and the tanks now desperately trying to take them down; their attempts only enraged them further, with the Gem Wasps stinging at the remaining soldiers, while the Wasp Queen turned her attentions to the tanks and flapped her wings at them, creating a gust of winds with such force and soon, the air surrounding them became so cold, that the hatches and the cannons on most of the tanks started to seal shut and ice formed around the vehicles, making them very useless.

"WHOA! We need to stop ourselves!" Steven declared, as he, Connie and Lion continued to roll around inside the bubble shield, until they were nearly in an upright position; seizing the opportunity, Steven quickly made the bubble shield disappeared, allowing them to try and regained their composure.

"Are you alright, Connie?" Steven asked his girlfriend.

"I could ask the same thing to you," Connie replied, as she and her boyfriend tried to make out which of their wounds were real from their unexpected hamster ride.

Lion, meanwhile, was unfazed at the slightest, remaining quite firm and still, as if nothing ever happened to him, with Steven and Connie eventually recovering from their dizziness.

"Alright, we need a new plan and fast," Steven immediately spoke.

"Well…we could try Stevonnie so that we can focus our attack," Connie suggested.

"Yeah, but the last time we tried that, we accidently ran into a wall because we had a hard time figuring out who was working what," Steven remembered. "It would probably be better if we stayed separated, so we have more eyes in different places."

"Fair enough," Connie conceded, "Let's try attacking her by surprise," she made another suggestion. "I say we teleport underneath her."

"If we do that, the Gem Wasps will notice us and sting us on the spot," Steven countered, still recalling their earlier attempts, before an idea came to him. "I know, instead of attacking it up close, let's attack it from a distance."

"But that plan will leave me out, since the sword I used doesn't have a range attack and your shield is the only weapon that qualifies it," Connie pointed out.

"Darn!" Steven cursed himself, before another idea came to him. "How about we use Lion's teleportation and throw your sword at it? That way, Lion can direct the sword right at their queen."

"Steven, I don't think that's even possible. I think that only works if we're riding with Lion," Connie expressed her skepticism, causing Steven to become frustrated by this point, his determination and Connie's common sense are clashing with one another, before he took a deep sigh and looked down on the pavement.

"It's deja vu all over again. I don't know what to do now."

"Steven, it's alright," Connie attempted to calm him down. "Just think calmly about this."

"Thanks, Connie," Steven appreciate his girlfriend's words, before taking a deep breath and calmly think up of a new plan. After what felt like eons, an idea finally came to him.

"I got it! We should teleport on top of the queen's back instead. If we're quick enough, we can take her out before the Gem Wasps even notice."

"I knew you could think up a plan," Connie said with a smile, as Steven nodded his head, before he and Connie got on top of Lion, who lowered himself for the couple to get on his back.

"Alright Lion, take us up on the Wasp Queen's back," he ordered.

With his eyes glowing, Lion formed a portal in front of him, before charging right into it , with Steven and Connie clinging on, both praying that they can pull this plan off. Within a few seconds, a portal formed slightly above the Wasp Queen's back, as the trio landed softly on top of her, with neither the Gem Wasps nor the Wasp Queen taking any notice, with the latter feeling a slight change of weight on her body.

'_Here goes nothing!'_ Connie thought, before she pulled out Rose's sword from Lion's head and stabbed at the Wasp Queen, causing her to screech very loudly, shattering every window in its vicinity and leaving Connie, as well as Steven and Lion, disoriented from it, as they all tried to regain their balance.

'_I should have seen that one coming,'_ Steven thought, before spotting the gemstone near the base of the Wasp Queen's back. _'There it is! If I pull it out, she'll have to retreat back into her gemstone!'_

But before Steven could even approach it, he suddenly heard Connie's screaming, prompting him to turn around and saw his girlfriend being attacked by a swarm of Gem Wasps, having finally notice there were intruders on their queen.

"Hang on, Connie! I'm coming!" he shouted, summoning up his shield and threw it right at the swarm attacking her, but it did little to deter them, as they continued to sting at Connie, before Steven fell down onto his knees in despair.

"It's happening again," Steven muttered quietly. "Connie's doom because I couldn't get to her on time."

As he lamented to himself on their dire situation, Steven looked around and spotted Lion lying motionless, no doubt that the Gem Wasps have already stung him, lying just a few inches away from him. The sight of the now frozen Lion prompted Steven to get up on his feet, now becoming determined.

"Alright, it's now or never!" Steven summoned his bubble shield and slowly and steadily walked his way up to Connie, inching his way towards her, while the Gem Wasps bounced off from the bubble in their attempts to sting him; upon finally approaching her, Steven quickly lowered his bubble shield, pulled Connie towards him, before summoning his bubble shield back up in a hurry.

"Connie, I'm here for you now," he informed her, only to hear no response. "...Connie? Are you…?"

Upon closer inspection, Steven saw no movement from Connie at the slightest; it was then that Steven realized that he arrive to Connie's aid a bit too late.

"I'm so useless!" Steven shouted at the top of his lungs, before feeling the pressure around him. "Even after preparing for the worse, I still put Connie and Lion in danger because of me!"

Suddenly, Steven felt the bubble moved downwards, with the Wasp Queen finally becoming aware of intruders on her back, as he, along with Connie and Lion, fell down to the pavement, with only the bubble shield acting as a cushion, preventing any serious damage, but it matter little to Steven. He was on the streets once again, Lion and Connie are frozen once more and worse, the Wasp Queen and her wasps are still causing chaos in Koyto, the latter snatching up many of the frozen citizens lying on the pavement and taking them up in the sky.

"What am I supposed to do now?!" he angrily shouted up in the sky. "Lion and Connie are statues, I'm still in the bubble and I have no way of dealing with the Wasp Queen now! Worse, the Crystal Gems _still_ have not shown up!" Tears soon filled up his face, as he continued to cry out. "No matter what I do, the situation never improves at the slightest!"

Steven looked over at Lion, where they were keeping the pets inside his mane and soon, hope filled up in his face. "Maybe I can find them now?" Steven put his hand on Lion's mane, but found he couldn't faze through, much to his sadness. "Lion must be too frozen to let me through."

Having finally given up all hope, Steven continued to sat in the bubble, his spirit finally broken, having no more ideas in him and watched silently up in the sky, as the Wasp Queen lead her soldiers to another neighboring town.

Suddenly, Steven started to feel burning sensation all over his body, especially his hands, forehead and chest. It was as if someone had turn up the oven and left the heat on, as it was building up at a much faster pace.

"W-What's going on?!" Steven shouted, but the burning sensation intensified much more and the pain was starting to become unbearable. He could feel the gemstones starting to remove themselves off of his body.

"I can't take this anymore!" Steven lowered the bubble shield without a second thought, but it did little to improve his situation. "If this...keeps up...I'll…" Steven could barely finish his sentence, trying to remain conscious, despite the pain, before finally, the gemstones on his forehead, chest and hands came out and just as the pain had appeared, it disappeared in an instant, much to his relief, before noticing the gemstones hovering above him.

"Could it be?" was all Steven could mustered, before, to his amazement, the gemstones began to glow and soon, Amethyst and Pearl were the first ones to regenerate, then two more Gems, one red, one blue, showed up, before they quickly got together and formed into Garnet and all three landed softly onto the pavement.

The sight of the Crystal Gems, standing right in front of him after three long years, left Steven utterly speechless, before finally mustering up the courage to speak up. Garnet looked a more darker red purple than before and her shoulders were more rounded, Amethyst lost her over-shirt and was wearing the black tunic underneath and the stars on her legs were now black instead of purple. Pearl was the most different, with a blue and pink tunic with a star on the front, light pink leggings and blue ballet shoes.

"Garnet...Amethyst…Pearl?"

The Crystal Gems turned around and saw Steven in front of them, before smiling and rushed towards him with a big hug and Steven, in turn, gave them a hug of his own.

"Guys! It's good to finally see you all again!" He shouted, with tears of joy streaming down from his face.

"It's good to be back at last!" Amethyst proclaimed.

"We missed you as well, Steven!" Pearl added.

"As much as I want to make this last, we must put our reunion on hold," Garnet informed her friends, prompting them to release their hugs, before she looked at Steven. "Steven, explain the situation to us."

Steven took a deep breath and briefly explained to her, Amethyst and Pearl of the Gem Wasps and their queen, how he, Connie and Lion tried to stop them with little success and how they tried to stop them again with the same result, up to their revival, before finally pointing at the Wasp Queen and the Gem Wasps still hovering in the skyline. Without a second thought, the Crystal Gems summoned their respective weapons, ready to take them down.

"We'll take it from here, Steven," Garnet told him.

"You deserved a break after what you've been through," Amethyst added.

"Just stay put with Lion and Connie and we'll be back before you know it," Pearl finished, before she and her friends took off, leaving Steven to tend with his frozen friends.

"What do you think those wasps will do with them?" Amethyst wondered out loud regarding the frozen citizens.

"Let's not think about it," Garnet replied. "We need to focus on saving the citizens before it's too late."

"We should focus on just the Wasp Queen itself," Pearl suggested. "If she goes down, then the rest of the Gem Wasps will go down as well, releasing their victims."

"Then we better go fast, because those suckers are flying much faster than we are," Amethyst then pointed to the Wasp Queen and her Gem Wasps above them, flying much faster than usual.

Thinking quickly, the Crystal Gems hopped onto the closest rooftop nearby, then started to hop from one rooftop after another, all the while dealing with a few swarm of Gem Wasps coming at them, stinging the trio multiple times, but it did little to slow them down.

"Seriously, is that the best they got?" Amethyst asked with annoyance, quickly whipping a few down.

"We are Gems after all…" Pearl began, piercing several Gem Wasps away and forcing them to drop their frozen captives. "So we're immune to their effects."

After what seemed like a long time, the Crystal Gems finally landed on top of the Wasp Queen, who furiously tried to get rid them off of her back, but the trio quickly used their weapons to pin on her back as support, preventing themselves from falling off to the pavement, before they began to pummel, whip and pierce all over her body; the multitude of their attacks took a deep toll on the Wasp Queen, before she let out a final screech and disappeared into a cloud of dust, leaving a zircon gemstone in her place, with the Gem Wasps disappearing with her as well, releasing their captives back down, along with the Crystal Gems, who landed safely on the ground, before Garnet approached the zircon gemstone and bubbled it away back to the Crystal Temple.

"Man! I haven't felt this good in a long time. Amethyst exclaimed, stretching her arms from their fight with the Wasp Queen.

"What about the citizens?" Pearl voiced her concern, pointing to the people still frozen like statues. "Should we take them to the hospital or something?"

"It's nothing to worry about," Garnet replied. "They'll recover in a few minutes, so it's best if we left them be."

"If you insist," Pearl accepted her friend's explanation, before she, Garnet and Amethyst headed to the opposite direction to meet up with Steven.

* * *

It took them more than at least several minutes, but the Crystal Gems finally met up with Steven, as promised, just as Connie and Lion were finally moving about once again, the effects having finally worn off from their bodies and both beginning to regain their balance.

"Whoa! What happened?" Connie asked, before she turned around and saw the Crystal Gems in full view. "Guys, you're back!" Without hesitation, Connie gave them the biggest hug to her friends, which seemed to last much longer than it should have, before they noticed Steven sitting on the ground with a frown on his face.

"Steven, what's wrong?" Connie then released her hug as she, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl approached the depressed Steven.

"I couldn't stop the Wasp Queen and those Gem Wasps on my own," he explained. "All I did was sit around and wait until the Crystal Gems returned and save the day. I swear, I'm useless!"

"Steven…" Pearl began, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You're not useless. You were able to protect Earth for the last three years. You might have faced overwhelming odds, but you manage to pull it off."

Steven didn't respond back, remaining silence for a moment, before he got up and hugged Pearl, just happy that she, Garnet and Amethyst are finally back from their long absence.

'_Still, it feels like they were helping me out because they lend me their weapons,'_ Steven sadly thought.

"Say, why don't you tell us what's been happening in the last three years?" Amethyst asked, breaking the silence surrounding them.

"I changed a lot in the last three years…" Steven started, only to realize what he just said. "Wait, I already mention that."

"It's cool, Stevie. Take your time explaining on what's new in Beach City," Amethyst assured her friend.

Steven nodded his head and smile, putting aside his self-loathing for the moment; the Crystal Gems are finally back after three long years and it was the time to celebrate their reunion at last.

* * *

**A/N Yay the gems are home!**

**I'm curious to see how Historical Friction fits into the overarcing story they've got going on so far. **

**Till next time, Sal out!**


	11. Epilogue: Reunion

_**Epilogue: Reunion**_

A day had passed since the Crystal Gems have finally regenerated after being dormant for three long years and now that they have returned, it was time for an overdue reunion, as the Crystal Gems, along with Steven, Connie, Greg and Lion, celebrated at the beach. Greg was busy with the grill, prepping up some good old fashion hot dogs and hamburgers, while Steven and Connie told Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl of what had been going on during their absence, including containing the many Corrupted Gems they can find; after explaining to them for several minutes, Amethyst burst into laughter, amused by what she had heard.

"Oh man! Lion must have really enjoy breaking every one of those windows like that!" Amethyst blurted out, as she continued to laugh. "Wish I was there to see it with my own eyes."

"Unbelievable!" Pearl shouted with exasperation, face palming upon learning of Lion's window breaking habit, before she turned her attention to Greg. "How on earth did you managed to pay off the damages he created?" She, as well as her friends, turned to face Lion, who was sleeping peacefully on the sands.

"I had to use most of the money I made from my car washing business to cover most of the cost," Greg explained. "It was a miracle that I didn't ended up dirt poor from paying off all the damages Lion made in the last three years."

"Steven and I were able to cover some of the cost as well," Connie added. "It probably helped that we ended up being Beach City's protectors during those three years."

"Hard to believe," Garnet simply said, something that she, Amethyst and Pearl are still getting use to.

"So Stevie…" Amethyst began. "Did the town like built a statue or two in your honor or something?"

"I talked them down twice," Steven quietly muttered, to Amethyst's confusion. But before she could say anything...

"Say, do any of you want to hear how Steven manage to rehabilitate the Corrupted Gems through his program?" Connie interjected, quickly changing the subject, earning the curiosity of the Crystal Gems.

"Is that so?" asked Garnet.

"Tell us more," said Amethyst.

"Yes, we really want to know how far you got," Pearl added.

"Alright then," Steven agreed, before focusing his attention to Lion. "You have no idea how long I spent trying to find these guys after losing them in here. Give me a second."

In about a few seconds, three tiny Corrupted Gems came rushing out of Lion's mane with collars and leashes around their necks, followed by Steven himself, giving the Crystal Gems a good look at them.

"Guys, I would like you to meet the Gem Pets," Steven proudly displayed them, before it hit him. "Where have you guys been? I was looking for you three in Lion's mane when the Gem Wasps were attacking yesterday." Steven, of course, wasn't going to get an answer, but he just had to asked.

"Is that all of them?" Amethyst questioned Steven.

"It's a start," said Garnet.

"What exactly can they do?" asked Pearl.

"Simple: I made them less violent and have them obey a few commands that I came up with. It isn't much, but they understood," Steven explained.

"That's quite impressive, Steven," Garnet praised him.

"I was expecting better," Amethyst commented.

"Is there anything else they can do?" Pearl continued to question Steven.

"They can still do much when they were big and violent," he answered. "But like I said, they followed a few commands I came up with, so they wouldn't randomly attacked anyone or anything."

"You did a wonderful job taming the Gem Pets in our absence," Garnet congratulated Steven.

"Well, it was nothing, really," a bashful Steven insisted, letting out a chuckle as well.

"Relax Steven, you earned it after all," Amethyst insisted.

"If Rose was here right now, she would be so proud of you," Pearl added.

"Guys, you're not making this better for me," Steven said otherwise, letting out an embarrassing smile on his face.

"Alright everyone, the burgers and hot dogs are now ready!" Greg shouted, to Steven's relief, as his dad called out at the right time, with the Crystal Gems no longer focusing their attentions at him, at least for now.

"Oh yeah!" an eager Amethyst declared, before she made her way to the grill. "I haven't eaten any food for a long time!"

"Ugh!" Pearl groaned in disgust. "I'll never understand why she still has an interest in food. It's just sick and wrong."

"Just let Amethyst have her fun," Garnet simply said to Pearl, as she sat on the sands in a relaxed demeanor, while Steven and Connie got up to help themselves to some food from the grill, before returning back to their spot with a hamburger and hot dog on their hands, respectively, followed by Amethyst shortly afterwards, holding a plate of both hamburger and hot dog for her to munch on.

"So..." Pearl began, turning her attention to Steven and Connie. "How are things between you two?"

"C'mon Pearl," Amethyst told her friend, as she chowed down on her hot dog. "Left them be for a moment. You should ask them about that after we're done celebrating here."

Both Steven and Connie flustered in embarrassment, realizing what Amethyst had just implied just now.

"Nothing happened between us!" Steven proclaimed.

"He's right!" Connie insisted. "We just hung out like friends during those three years!"

"Sure it was," Pearl spoke, looking at them unconvincingly.

"Don't be shy, you guys," Amethyst decided to join in. "You can tell us your secrets." This only caused Steven and Connie to become more embarrassed than they already were.

"Alright you two, that's enough," Garnet interjected, deciding to get herself involved. "It isn't our business to know that they're already dating."

"No, not you too," Steven muttered, before Garnet noticed his embarrassment on his face and simply smiled.

"We won't interrupt you and Connie any further. We promised," Garnet assured him, before she, Amethyst and Pearl gave the couple more space and headed over to Greg instead to talk with him, leaving just Steven and Connie by themselves, as they sat much closer together.

"That was the most awkward thing ever," Steven stated.

"Agreed," Connie said to her boyfriend.

"It was definitely bad, but at least it's over now," Steven added.

"We can certainly enjoy each other's company without any more interference," said Connie, with Steven nodding his head, before she noticed that her boyfriend was looking down on the sands sadly. "What's wrong, Steven? I thought you would be happy now that the Crystal Gems are here again."

"I am," Steven insisted. "In fact, I'm overjoyed that they returned. It's just that, I felt like I'm going to be a burden to them once more, since my shield could barely leave a dent and the only thing I'm good at is making sure everyone is safe. But when I'm on my own, I can't get rid of what threatens everyone else around me."

"Steven…" Connie began, wanting to find a way to put a smile on her boyfriend's face. "You've been protecting Beach City for three years now without any trouble."

"I felt more like a stand-in for the Crystal Gems," he countered. "It was because I used their weapons that I was prolonging their return."

For a moment, there was a long silence between the couple, neither saying anything to one another; finally, Connie faced her boyfriend, ready to speak once more.

"So Steven, what will you do next?"

"I got an idea, but it sounds stupid and silly."

"Nonsense, Steven. I want to know more about this 'stupid, silly idea' of yours," Connie insisted and egged her boyfriend on repeatedly, before he finally relented to her demands.

"Alright, I'll tell you," Steven then took a deep breath before giving his girlfriend his answer. "I was thinking of traveling around the world on my own." His admission prompted Connie to stare back at her boyfriend with shock and surprise.

"...Are you sure that's what you really wanted to do?" she finally asked after a moment of silence.

"I do," Steven replied. "After seeing Japan up close like that, I think that traveling around the world on my own could help me, so I won't feel like a burden to the Crystal Gems again."

"Why don't you talk to the Crystal Gems about this?" Connie suggested.

"I don't mind their help or anything, but I want to do this on my own, to show that this was something I did for myself. I don't need anyone to hold my hands or teach me how it's done."

"If that's what you want to do, then I can respect that," Connie accepted her boyfriend's response, understanding his decision. "The least thing you should do is let the Crystal Gems know about it."

"Don't worry, I will," Steven assured his girlfriend, before a question came to him. "Will you be fine by yourself?"

"Of course, Steven," she assured him. "Lion and I will be protecting Beach City when you're gone and with the Crystal Gems here, we can handle it."

Connie's answer was enough for Steven to feel relieved, as he didn't have to worry about anything going wrong once he began making plans for traveling around the world.

After a few hours of celebration, night finally arrived at Beach City and everyone went off to get some sleep from having a good time at the party. But for Steven, he had no time for sleep; he had a plan on traveling around the world and if he had to stay up all night to make his preparation, then he had no reason to complain about it.

"Let me see…" Steven began, double checking his backpack of the essentials he will need in his travels. "I guess a few clothes, some snacks and this map will have to do. I'm sure I can handle whatever is thrown at me during my travels."

Satisfied by this, Steven put his backpack on his back and prepared to head towards the warp pad, intending to leave as fast as possible...at least, that was the plan, until…

"Are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this?" Startled, Steven turned around and saw Garnet behind him, standing right near the entrance to the Crystal Temple.

"H-How did you know?" was all Steven could asked.

"Call it a mother's intuition," Garnet quipped.

"...Alright then," Steven accepted this, before giving Garnet a serious look. "Yes, Garnet, I am and my mind is made up."

"Why?" Garnet calmly asked.

"I don't want to feel like a burden," Steven replied. "I have to improve myself without relying on anyone else's assistance."

"I understand you want to become stronger on your own…" Garnet began, before calmly walking up to Steven. "But I think you are doing this the wrong way. More importantly, why did you lie to Connie about us?" Steven didn't answered back, however and simply took a deep breath, before giving Garnet his answer.

"I didn't want her to get worried."

"That lie will leak out the moment you leave," Garnet rebuffed. "You're going to get Pearl panicking once she sees what you have done and your dad, as well as Connie, will be just as worried for your safety."

Steven felt the urge to scream back at Garnet, but restrained himself instead, trying to remain as calm as he can be.

"I just didn't want to make things harder for myself, that's all," Steven told Garnet and for the longest time, there was a long silence in the air between them.

"...Where will you be going?" Garnet finally asked.

"I don't know, but I'll figure something out," Steven answered.

"If that's how you feel, then be careful out there," Steven was caught by surprise upon hearing Garnet's calm response to his claim. It was as if she was letting him go and expecting him to return back in a few minutes.

"Garnet, are you-" Before he could finished his sentence, Garnet pulled Steven into a tight hug, squeezing him for what felt like an eternity.

'_Maybe I haven't thought this through...'_ Steven began to reconsider. _'I want to get stronger, but maybe I overreacted and went too far with this.'_

"You're having second thoughts about it, are you?" Garnet asked Steven, as if she had sensed his doubts. "Whatever decision you will make, I will respect it."

"...You're trying to convince to change my mind, aren't you?" Steven asked suspiciously.

"Yes," Garnet bluntly answered. "If I couldn't persuade you, Amethyst and Pearl will try to do so themselves."

It was at this point that it finally hit Steven: even though he wanted to get stronger so he could feel less of a burden to everyone and be able to handle things himself if it ever came down to just him again, he never considered how his decision would affect those around him and the consequences that came with it...until now.

"Garnet, I'm so sorry for overreacting like that," Steven apologized. "I never meant to be so rash and impulsive."

"Apology accepted," Garnet said to Steven. "Amethyst, Pearl and I will support your decision to become stronger and you can still do so right here." Steven pondered for a moment about this and seeing what he was about to do just now, he realized there was one thing he can do.

"Alright Garnet, I will," his answer was enough for Garnet to finally let him go of her hug.

"Now go upstairs and get some sleep."

"Don't worry, Garnet. I will," Steven turned around for a moment, before he looked back at Garnet with a smile on his face. "Thank you," he said, before he headed back into his bedroom.

Satisfied that she convinced Steven to abandon his mind and touched by his words, Garnet turned around and went back to the entrance of the Crystal Temple, as she entered inside and walked around the corner, where Amethyst and Pearl were hiding behind the entrance, having heard their friend's conversation with Steven, both relieved how things had turned out.

"Way to go, Garnet," Amethyst congratulated her friend.

"I'm glad Steven listened to reasons," Pearl spoke up. "I thought for sure that he would disobey and head out on his own."

"I'm not entirely sure that I manage to steer him away from his plan," Garnet confessed. "But if it helps, I did manage to give him peace of mind."

"It's better than nothing," Amethyst commented.

"I suppose so," Pearl accepted Garnet's answer.

"Anyway, we should let Steven be," said Garnet, rushing Amethyst and Pearl back inside the Crystal Temple, as the entrance behind them closed, while Steven, up in his bedroom, was getting himself ready for a good night sleep, but not before he reflected on what happened tonight.

'_I'm glad that I didn't went through with this after all. I can't believe how selfish I was back there. Maybe being there to protect everyone isn't so bad after all.'_

With that in mind, Steven got into his bed and fell asleep and despite of what he went through in the last three years, felt very happy about his life in almost all aspects.

**A/N Well everyone that's all from me in this story and the last day of Stevenbomb is here.**

**Today's episode was another "?" for the week promo so I wonder what kind of big event they got planned liked last time.**

**Anyway I appreciate everyone sticking with me to the end and the support from everyone!**

**Till next time, Sal out!**


End file.
